The city of Toulouse wants to toughen up its tone in the face of paid parking fraudsters and prepare for the future deployment of a semi-automatic ticketing system. For this, the municipality will acquire vehicles equipped with an automatic number plate reading device (Lapi).

In order to make the work of public surveillance surveillance agents (ASVP) more effective in controlling compliance with the paying agent, the city of Toulouse should start, within a few months, a semi-automatic ticketing system. Indeed, this Friday, October 22, the city council has declared the opening of a “preparatory work” for the implementation of the automated reading of license plates (Lapi). The time, in particular, to carry out blank tests. “For the moment, we will discuss and reflect. Other cities such as Paris, Marseille, Lyon or Rouen have already implemented it. We are going to try to draw inspiration from them and learn from their mistakes before launching ourselves, ”specifies Emilion Esnault, deputy mayor in charge of municipal police and the proper maintenance of public space.

70% of parking fraudsters in Toulouse

From the first half of 2022, Toulousains should see municipal vehicles topped with cameras circulate along the 3,000 paid parking spaces. “Fitting four or five cars should cost us around 200,000 euros. To this, we must add 15,000 euros per year to pay for the license for the license plate detection software, ”explains Emilion Esnault. An investment that he hopes will reduce parking meter fraud and, by redeploying the ASVPs on blue zones (free parking for a limited time), promote rotation in parking places so that they are more frequently available. In fact, in Toulouse, 70% of users who park in a paid space fail to use the parking meter to pay their dues.

Semi-automatic verbalization

In fact, a clearly identifiable car equipped with a camera will circulate at low speed in the streets where there is a charge for parking. The images will then be transferred in real time by software that compares the license plates of parked vehicles with the parking meter files as well as with the database of resident and professional subscriptions. An automation of verbalization which worries the opposition.

“You take the risk of sanctioning, de facto, motorists who are not at fault. For example, how will the system take into account the users who are paying their ticket when the vehicle passes by? This risks placing an additional burden, when it is already important, on people mentally who will have to challenge the Post-parking pass (FPS), ”said Maxime Le Texier, municipal councilor in the Archipel Citizen group, who recalls that the automatic verbalization, without observation by a sworn agent is illegal. A limit which, according to the CNIL, concerned the verbalization of criminal offenses and not that of FPS, the lack of parking having been decriminalized in 2018.

“The control will not be fully automatic, but semi-automatic”, corrigendum Emilion Esnault. Indeed, this ensures that the “human discernment” of the ASVP remains decisive since it is an agent, present on board the vehicle, who will be responsible for noting irregularities and sending an FPS to offenders. “At least until the law changes on this point, if it changes,” he adds. Arrangements and adjustments will also be made to limit the risk of abusive verbalization. “We will try to take advantage of the experience of cities that have already implemented this system. This is why we have undertaken preparatory work, ”recalls the elected official.