City of Richmond simplifies parking enforcement
The City of Richmond had objectives to maximize resources and boost its parking enforcement team’s efficiency. After contracting SP+ Parking for help, the city implemented Genetec AutoVu Managed Services to enhance city parking enforcement.
The company
The City of Richmond is considered the fourth most populous city in the state of Virginia, United States. Located at the center of the greater Richmond Metropolitan Area, and just 98 miles south of Washington, DC, Richmond is known for its historic and architectural charm, and flourishing cultural scene. For residents and an influx of daily commuters and visitors, Richmond offers just under 1,500 on-street metered parking spaces, 5,000 residential and time-limited on-street spaces, and over 5,000 off-street spaces in approximately 20 lots and garages.
The challenge
A few years ago, Richmond invested in a vehicle booting program for its on-street parking to encourage better parking compliance. While the booting program was effective, parking enforcement officers spent their shifts walking up and down parking zones and city streets checking vehicles at random to identify those with outstanding infractions. Enforcing the permitted residential and time-limited zones in the City of Richmond was also a very time-consuming process for parking enforcement officers.
The solution
99% reliability with AMS
AutoVu Managed Services requires no on-site servers, freeing up IT resources for other business tasks and minimizing costs associated with procuring, powering and maintaining infrastructure.
Simplified parking enforcement
Operators now select the enforcement zone, and drive up and down streets, while the AutoVu cameras scan license plates and alert operators to unpermitted, overtime or scofflaw vehicles.
Digital tire chalking
For overtime parking, AutoVu captures wheel images of parked cars. Operators review wheel images; if the tire valves have not shifted, the operator confirms the violation.
Minimized errors in citations
With AMS working at peak efficiency, parking officers have been able to maximize their productivity, making the most of each shift. The city has experienced a 6.5% increase in citations, and 13% increase in scofflaw identification.
“We spent a lot of time troubleshooting for issues, so our system was only up around 55% of the time. Now, with the hosted service from Genetec, we have upwards of 99% uptime, and no issues,"
Javon Barner, On-Street Parking Enforcement Manager, City of Richmond
Results
The City of Richmond relied on the expertise of SP+ Parking, providers of professional parking services, who proposed the AutoVu automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) system. Today, the City of Richmond has two vehicles equipped with the AutoVu ALPR system; one is for scofflaw identification and the other is for overtime and permitted enforcement.
After some internal IT conflicts, the City of Richmond moved to AutoVu Managed Services (AMS), the cloud-hosted parking enforcement service offered by Genetec, from the server-based AutoVu system. AutoVu Managed Services allows Richmond to experience all the benefits of efficient scofflaw identification and parking enforcement in a cost-effective, highly-reliable turnkey solution.