GALVESTON TX, USES 3M POWERED PAY BY PLATE PARKING ENFORCEMENT SOLUTION
The City of Galveston Police Department is using an integrated pay by phone by plate parking solution provided by 3M, PayByPhone and parking enforcement software value added reseller gtechna. The parking system has allowed Galveston to introduce an accurate and efficient means to enforce parking with little to no impact on the existing infrastructure of Galveston’s Seawall, a highly frequented tourist destination. Over the years, Galveston visitors have parked for free. Paid parking was introduced on the Seawall in 2013 and through a campaign aimed at educating the public, was successfully received. Severe weather such as hurricanes pose a real risk for the city; add to this concerns about disturbing the historic Seawall’s natural facade with additional parking equipment and, mobile phone payments appeared to be the most accommodating solution for city, residents and tourists. A Plate-Based Integrated Solution Galveston is using 3M LPR slate camera’s and gtechna’s pay by plate enforcement software to interface with PayByPhone’s mobile parking app. All transactions are associated with a license plate which is then scanned for enforcement by 3M’s license plate recognition cameras. Galveston police edition SUVs are fully equipped with license plate recognition (LPR) cameras and an in-vehicle laptop running gtechna’s license plate recognition software scanning up to 3 plates a second. “With the ticketing component embedded in the LPR software, we are issuing a ticket within seconds of getting a hit; the ticketing and LPR cross reference plate data seamlessly since they are one in the same system”, commented Officer Sean Migues. Multiple Ways to Take Advantage of LPR Technology Galveston has positioned itself as one the only cities in North America with a vision to leverage LPR in a manner that is both unique and creative to maximize the benefits and realize the full potential of this technology. This includes time enforcement, paid parking rights, criminal investigation, permits, disaster preparedness and border security. The Police Department is employing a mix of applications in plate-based enforcement demonstrating that with ingenuity, LPR technology can play an indispensable role in a city’s operations. The license plate recognition (LPR) software can run on multiple platforms including tablets or laptops and is a part of the same software used for eticketing on Android™ or Windows operating systems. All data captured with LPR is attached to the ticket record and can be transferred in real-time and managed using a cloud based infrastructure or installed locally on servers. “We were presented with a few options when deciding on which parking system to implement. Eventually, we settled on a pay by phone by plate system because it was the best fit for the unique requirements of this tourist region. It’s really a win for both the taxpayers and the Police Department because we now have an efficient and sustainable parking solution well suited to the Seawall ecosystem” commented Migues. 3M and partners will be on tour in Philadelphia Sponsoring a Parking Innovation Seminar with special Guest Speaker, Pittsburgh Parking Authority, PPAP Executive Director David Onorato. Get more info on how to register.