Attaching cameras to D.C.’s fleet of street sweepers to nab parking violators will generate up to $2.67 million this year alone, more than double the revenue currently garnered from sweeper-related tickets, a District study found.
The analysis by the Department of Public Works assumed an average of 89 vehicles parking illegally on any given street-sweeper route.
Over the course of a six-month sweeping season, DPW expects to issue upward of 89,000 $30 tickets by camera alone — assuming that compliance with thelaw increases to 60 percent by the fourth month of enforcement.
“The bottom line for us is changing behavior so that people honor the parking restrictions during the two-hour sweeping period so that we can clean the streets,” said Linda Grant, DPW spokeswoman.
In 2006, DPW’s team of parking enforcers issued 114,000 tickets, totaling $3.42 million, for parking on residential streets during the designated weekly sweeper times.
The sweeper cameras will operate much like the District’s photo red-light and radar technology. The cameras, attached to the sweepers, will photograph the license plates of illegally parked vehicles, and a computer program will automatically issue tickets to the registered vehicles.
The agency expects to purchase roughly 15 cameras that cost up to $80,000 each.
“I know it’s a major problem,” AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend said of sweeper violators. “But the greatest proficiency D.C. has is ticketing folks. It does it better than any city I know. They do it with such proficiency, you wonder what the real motive is. Is it law enforcement or is it revenue?”
In a related study from 2007, DPW analyzed the contaminants its sweepers picked up over the course of an average route. In addition to the regular garbage, each sweeper collected 10 pounds of oil and grease per mile, 30 pounds of nitrogen and 30 pounds of phosphorous — pollutants known to damage waterways.
“When we can’t clean the streets, this is what’s actually running off into the sewers and ultimately into the Anacostia River,” Grant said.
