Nation’s street sweepers turn into spies

Local street sweepers will soon turn into spies.

Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone, but cameras have been perched outside the cabs of the District of Columbia’s tractor-sized sweepers. The drivers can activate the cameras at the push of a button and take pictures of parked cars in their way.

As the brushes whirl, parking tickets can be processed. Sweepers in Chicago and buses in San Francisco are already serving as ticket makers.

Now, that’s really cleaning up!

For the moment, the District of Columbia is holding off ticketing vehicles via street-sweeper cameras. The Department of Public Works says it’s not fully ready. But when that happens, Tracey Patten, who spends much of his time keeping D.C. streets clean, will expand his role to law enforcement.

Mr. Patten said the cameras are easy to use but add to the driver’s responsibilities. Drivers must pause the camera when making a turn or on a street not scheduled for cleaning, so pictures are not taken of cars parked legally.

San Francisco and Chicago have begun similar efforts. San Francisco began using video-enforcement cameras on city buses in January to catch drivers double-parked in public transit-only lanes, although an initial proposal included putting cameras on sweepers as well. The program - inspired by one begun in London 10 years ago - was approved by the state Legislature and signed into law last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.

The Chicago City Council in July approved an ordinance allowing cameras on street sweepers. The city has six camera-equipped sweepers and is now testing them in a pilot project, but not yet issuing tickets.

“What we’re trying to do is now make sure that from a technological and operational standpoint everything meshes,” said Matt Smith, a spokesman for Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation.

The District’s street sweepers were supposed to start ticketing cars parked in cleaning zones last month, after the D.C. Council in June passed legislation allowing enforcement cameras on the machines.

“We just want to wait until the process is flawless,” said agency spokeswoman Nancee Lyons.

AAA Mid-Atlantic, the motorists group, says the so-called Sweepercam initiative is more about cleaning out drivers’ wallets than cleaning city streets.

D.C. leaders insist the objective is the latter. But the plan eventually could bring in nearly a half-million dollars in monthly revenue, depending on how motorists comply with parking regulations, according to city estimates.

The District has issued only warning notices to motorists. Two camera-equipped sweepers on different routes took pictures resulting in 1,766 warnings from Aug. 4 through Oct. 21.

The agency had expected to begin issuing tickets Oct. 14. But Miss Lyons said the department was still training drivers, installing the cameras and testing the ticketing process.

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