Street sweeper cameras get OK

D.C. street sweepers outfitted with cameras capable of scanning license plates will debut as early as the summer after the D.C. Council passed the bill with no debate yesterday , city officials said.

“The streets are going to be cleaner and I think people are going to appreciate that,” D.C. Council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, said.

The legislation will put cameras on the city’s 20 street sweepers that can automatically generate citations for parking violations on street-cleaning routes.

D.C. Department of Public Works spokeswoman Linda Grant said the cameras, which cost about $36,000 each, will be tested for 45 days on two street sweepers before the rest are equipped.

The department will issues warnings for the first 45 days after all the cameras are installed. Future violators will receive $30 tickets in the mail for infractions.

Miss Grant said that a specific timetable for installing the cameras had not been set.

The council introduced the legislation last year at the request of D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty who said the cameras will help the Department of Public Works more efficiently ticket residents who violate parking restrictions during street-cleaning days and increase compliance with those restrictions.

Critics of the plan said the move secures another avenue of potentially invasive surveillance or will become a cash cow for the city among several others, such as red light and speeding cameras.

“It’s a high-tech way to bring in revenue,” AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend said. “Motorists are going to have to think about whether parking is a hidden tax they have to pay.”

Miss Grant dismissed criticism, saying that D.C. residents shouldn’t have a problem with cameras because it supports a program they want.

“I think we have to keep in mind that residents request street-cleaning service ,” she said.

The plan to install the cameras also comes after The Washington Times reported last month that Mr. Fenty would consolidate the city’s 5,200 closed-circuit security and traffic cameras under the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

Civil liberties activists have said the cameras just add to the number of eyes already watching residents.

But Miss Grant said the street-sweeper cameras are not for surveillance and comparing them to security and traffic cameras is “comparing apples and oranges.”

Scheduled street-cleaning occurs weekly in every city ward except for Ward 3, and is temporarily suspended during winter. Signs prohibit parking along curbs during a two-hour period while the sweeping is done.

The city issued 114,000 tickets on streets with residential sweeping in fiscal 2006, and averages about 450 tickets per day for street-sweeping violations, according to information from the Department of Public Works.

Officials said that if 20 percent of motorists violate regulations against parking in blocks marked for street sweeping in a given month, the city will collect about $213,000 in additional monthly revenue.