Police employing technology to enforce parking | Thestar

“It was apparent once I got here that parking is an issue in this town,” Police Chief Doug Harp said. “We stumbled across this one day. We set up an webinar to take a look at it, and then we ended up taking a trip to Huntington because they have this same system.”

Harp, Capt. Cory Heffelfinger and Mayor Mike Ley met with Huntington officials to see the technology in use.

At the time, Auburn didn’t have a parking enforcement officer. Once CitePro was in place, local resident Don Thacker was hired for that role.

“We wanted to have something in place this year because the festivals were starting to come back,” Harp explained. “We knew things were getting more active, so we wanted to have something in place.

“We wanted a permanent person to handle parking, and we feel very fortunate to have found Don, who is a local resident and has some background in law enforcement,” the chief said. “You have to have the right person, somebody who knows how to deal with people. People aren’t happy when they get a fine obviously.”

“I used to be a beer salesman, so I know how to talk to people,” Thacker quipped. ... “It’s the perfect job for an old man who’s retired.”

Thacker was town marshal in Corunna in the mid-1980s. His father was a deputy sheriff in Kentucky.

He makes his first pass through the downtown area each morning, entering information for all vehicles in areas marked for two-hour parking. He returns in the early afternoon for another check.

On this particular day, Thacker has entered 74 vehicles into the hand-held CitePro device. Information is entered street by street, noting which side of the street a vehicle is parked.

He takes a photo of a vehicle’s license plate and enters vehicle description, location, time and the position of the valve stem on one of the tires. The valve stem positions are identified like hands of a clock.

“It gives me everywhere I’ve stopped at and what vehicles,” Thacker explained. In the 100 block of South Cedar Street, there were five parked vehicles. None were in violation of the two-hour parking limit, so no tickets were issued.

“The majority of the people are catching on now. They’re moving their vehicles,” he said. “You’ll have some that don’t care.”

When he encounters a previously-entered vehicle that has been moved — according to the valve stem position — Thacker notes it in CitePro as being in compliance.

If a vehicle has not moved, he enters that information, and the device prints out a violation ticket that Thacker places on the windshield. That ticket includes the information he previously entered, as well as the times of Thacker’s checks.

“When I go back out, it’ll tell me if you’ve been there two hours, three hours, whatever,” he explained. “Then, I start running the ticket. It makes it a lot faster than going around with a chalk stick.”

“It’s a very cool piece of equipment,” Harp said. “In this day and age, we try to use technology that makes sense, saves us work and streamlines things.”

Historically, law enforcement and parking enforcement agencies around the country physically marked vehicle tires using chalk.

In 2019, a three-judge panel in a federal appeals court ruled that chalking tires without a warrant constituted a violation of an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure.

“Prior to CitePro, it was all done chalking tires,” Harp said. For a time after that ruling, instead of marking tires, police would chalk the concrete around a vehicle tire. “When he goes out now, he’s looking at the position of the valve stem.”

As with any new technology, there are learning curves, glitches and errors.

“I’ve had it happen about three or four times on me,” Thacker said.

“You may have a vehicle that moves and comes back to the same location an hour later,” Harp added. “The valve stem’s not going to be in the same exact location.”

“You’re not touching the vehicle,” Thacker said. “You print out the ticket right on this and leave the ticket on the windshield, and you’re pretty much done.” Ink on the tickets will not run off in wet conditions, they noted.

A parking violation ticket in Auburn carries a $10 fine. If that ticket is not paid, the fine goes up to $30.

“It’s a city ordinance,” Thacker said. “People will get mad at you. They’ll scream at you and call you names. I’ve been hollered at about four times already. … It’s not fun.

“I don’t want to write anyone a ticket, but an ordinance is a law. You’ve got to obey the law,” he said. “Plain and simple, that’s just the way it is.”