It's now harder to get out of your parking ticket
YAKIMA -- Thousands of dollars worth of parking tickets go uncollected every year here in Yakima.
The city's trying to change that with a new electronic system. KIMA first told you about the plans last year. It's now in place. It makes it easier for you to pay while showing the evidence against you.
The new system has only been in place for about a month, but it's already starting a buzz.
"They think it's pretty cool,” said Parking Enforcement Officer Gary Goodwill.
It's hard to believe that any part of getting a ticket would be cool. However, that's how people are describing the new parking ticket system.
"Well, that's pretty cool I guess for people who want to pay it online that don't have time I guess," said Ricky Torres a Yakima driver.
Before tickets were written with pen and paper. Now parking officers use a “smart” pen to fill in bubbles.
“It has an infrared camera that reads everything on the citation itself," explained Goodwill.
That information is then sent to his phone and asks for pictures. The officer snaps a picture of the license plate and the infraction. By the time the officer places the ticket on your windshield, the ticket has been uploaded along with the pictures to the website where you can pay for it instantly. Almost $15,000 worth of unpaid tickets was written off last year.
"It should stop the people saying I wasn't there or it wasn't me or I didn't do what he said I did," said Goodwill.
The city hopes people will pay and stop fighting tickets in court, especially with visual evidence against them.
"You're already caught you can't really do much about it you just got to pay the fine," said driver Alfredo Gonzalez.
That's exactly what they want drivers to do, pay up or just pay attention when you park.
Parking tickets written last year added up to more than $166,000. The city collated about $114,000 of it.
The city's trying to change that with a new electronic system. KIMA first told you about the plans last year. It's now in place. It makes it easier for you to pay while showing the evidence against you.
The new system has only been in place for about a month, but it's already starting a buzz.
"They think it's pretty cool,” said Parking Enforcement Officer Gary Goodwill.
It's hard to believe that any part of getting a ticket would be cool. However, that's how people are describing the new parking ticket system.
"Well, that's pretty cool I guess for people who want to pay it online that don't have time I guess," said Ricky Torres a Yakima driver.
Before tickets were written with pen and paper. Now parking officers use a “smart” pen to fill in bubbles.
“It has an infrared camera that reads everything on the citation itself," explained Goodwill.
That information is then sent to his phone and asks for pictures. The officer snaps a picture of the license plate and the infraction. By the time the officer places the ticket on your windshield, the ticket has been uploaded along with the pictures to the website where you can pay for it instantly. Almost $15,000 worth of unpaid tickets was written off last year.
"It should stop the people saying I wasn't there or it wasn't me or I didn't do what he said I did," said Goodwill.
The city hopes people will pay and stop fighting tickets in court, especially with visual evidence against them.
"You're already caught you can't really do much about it you just got to pay the fine," said driver Alfredo Gonzalez.
That's exactly what they want drivers to do, pay up or just pay attention when you park.
Parking tickets written last year added up to more than $166,000. The city collated about $114,000 of it.
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