Last Updated on January 10, 2018 by Lawrence Berezin
In the valley of corruption, the barcode and scanner are kings
A barcode system has been initiated to fight police ticket fixing. A recent article in the New York Times explains how the system is supposed to work:
“The system involves a new summons form complete with electronic bar codes intended to detect diversions.
The tickets are bundled in packages of 20, and each one has six copies, for distribution to everyone from drivers to the Department of Motor Vehicles to station houses and borough police commands.
Before any officer gets a bundle, the tickets in it are scanned by a hand-held device by a supervisor, with each summons number forever linked to that officer’s name.
They are scanned again, immediately after an officer turns each one, or a few, in. They are scanned again before they are taken from a box in each station house by a supervisor for transport and again at borough headquarters.
‘If there is a summons that is missing, at any time, there is an investigation,’ and the Internal Affairs Bureau, which investigates police misconduct, is notified, said Deputy Inspector Kim Y. Royster, a department spokeswoman. She said that integrity control officers routinely audit the numbers. ‘The system picks it up right away’ if a summons is missing, she said.”
My kingdom for an illegal placard
Publicity related to the ongoing police corruption scandal has spilled over to another foul enterprise…illegal placards. Here are some key findings in a study performed by Transportation Alternatives:
- “57 percent of the permits in the survey were either legal permits used illegally or illegitimate permits
- One in four permits was a fake, suggesting that citywide there are at least 10,000-25,000 thousand fraudulent permits. (That’s more fake permits than the 12,000 New York City yellow cabs)
- Manhattan’s Civic Center neighborhood led the survey for the highest rate of permit abuse; less than 5 percent or 11 of 244 permits surveyed were being properly used.”
Here’s a link to a page on Transportation Alternatives where you can download a free copy of the complete report
NYC Council response
Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick has sponsored a Bill mandating the commissioner to require that all parking placards issued by the department have a bar code which would allow traffic enforcement agents to confirm their validity.”
Here’s a video about placard abuse by Street films.
Commentary
Many different stakeholders are surfing the big wave of the police parking ticket and placard scandal to get their stylized message out to the NYC public.
My secret Santa private corruption source has whispered in my ear that the NYC police department has enlisted the emergency assistance of “C” level executives from Kings and Whole Foods to tweak the barcode used to fight corruption (just kidding).
You may be interested in reading more articles on Larry’s Blog about the growing scandal:
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