The Downers Grove Village Council voted to step up parking enforcement Tuesday, approving the purchase of a $42,858 vehicle-mounted license plate recognition camera, a move that follows last month’s decision to impose a flat fine of $25 per parking ticket.
“I don’t think anybody’s looking at this as a revenue getter. I think people are looking at it as a way to enforce parking, which is becoming an increasing problem,” said Commissioner Bill Waldack. “When you hear grumbling from a number of businesses it tells you that you want to address it before it becomes a big problem and people start lining up at meetings.”
The camera mounts to a vehicle, and scans parking stall and plate information that is then beamed to a laptop computer inside the vehicle, enabling a parking enforcement officer to quickly identify violators. The camera is expected to enable parking enforcement officers to do in 10 minutes what used to take an hour.
Police Chief Bob Porter said the camera would enable the department to stay in line with the village’s current unofficial mantra by “doing more with less.”
Resulting from budget cuts, the department was forced to pare back its parking enforcement staff from three officers to one since 2009.
During recent village council meetings local business owners have increasingly addressed commissioners on the lack of available parking in the downtown area.
“It’s really done for the purpose of making sure that there is ample parking for shoppers in the downtown area … so that there’s a healthy churn in the spots,” said village spokesman Doug Kozlowski. “It’s a good problem to have when you have more people coming downtown wanting to patronize.”
According to a memo, the village is poised to make some money by increasing the number of parking citations, at least in the short term, though projections of exactly how much were not available.
While village finances have been tight lately, a memo states that the cost of the camera will be more than covered by staff reductions in the parking enforcement division.
