Parking enforcement has just gone high-tech.
The City of Nanaimo has retrofitted a vehicle with license plate recognition technology that uses cameras and a GPS unit to record the location of cars and the time that they've been parked.
The new technology allows for patrol areas to be expanded without the need for more staff and a more consistent approach to on-street parking enforcement, a press release says.
Licence plate information will only be used to help enforce the traffic bylaw or collect debt to the city as a result of a bylaw infraction and any plates photographed and not in violation of an offense will be purged at the end of the shift. The city also says the cameras are focused on licence plates and do not take pictures of pedestrians.
The technology was budgeted last year at $97,000.