#  Call Off the Dragnet: Impoundment and ‘Special Collections’ Lead to Blackmail and Extortion

     Details    Eric Preven and Joshua Preven   ![logo](https://www.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         December 08 2016      [  ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Dec-2016/099l.png)    ](https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/12253-call-off-the-dragnet-impoundment-and-special-collections-lead-to-blackmail-and-extortion)

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> NIX THE AUTO VU SYSTEM-On October 1st, at the direction of Mayor Garcetti, three Genetec AutoVu™ patrol vehicles were released into the flow of LA traffic like Trident submarines into the North Atlantic.
>
> Mounted on the vehicles were multiple SharpX automated license plate recognition cameras -- each capable of reading and capturing “thousands of license plates per shift” -- day or night -- then checking the plates against a database in real time, with vehicle occupancy counts also being an option as well as “silent” notifications of law enforcement when warrants are detected.
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> The purpose of all this? Anti-terrorism? Preparations for a drug-trafficking sting?
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> No. The purpose is parking enforcement. The AutoVu™ system is a tool for collecting unpaid parking fines, with a particular emphasis on tracking down vehicles eligible for impounding.
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> The [contracto](http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinecontracts/2016/C-124676_C_am_08-12-16.pdf)r who runs the program, Xerox State and Local Solutions (which lobbies the city aggressively through Englander, Knabe, and Allen,) gets paid a 2.5% commission by the City for all fees and penalties incurred by the individual late on his or her parking fines. Xerox gets $27 per citation on Special Collections.
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> The gold standard of penalties is impoundment, by far the most lucrative infraction to impose upon Angelenos, as it costs the owner hundreds of dollars.
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> By creating a program that incentivizes the contractor to get cars impounded, the Mayor has, in effect, put a bounty on the head of every vehicle owner in Los Angeles -- and by extension on the loved ones of that owner.
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> The AutoVu™ system is a dragnet.
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> Impoundment is not always caused by people not paying their parking tickets. It is a punishment often meted out unjustly to individuals who, for example, leave their car on the street for greater than 72 hours -- a rule not well-known to the public and never posted on street signs, as the City learned not too long ago in a lawsuit.
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> The AutoVu™ system should be shut down.
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> Data derived from a dragnet of license plates can be used for blackmail and extortion. Similarly, there is no downside for AutoVu “hunters” to make false enforcement claims -- especially on residents for whom English is not their first language. Inevitably, some percentage of those victims, not sure how to contest the impounding, will pay the fine.
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> Life is hard enough without government sponsored profit seekers marauding around prying into the business of everyday residents.
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> But from an economic view, it’s not hard to see the temptation for Mayor Garcetti in choosing to implement the program. AutoVu™ is lucrative. As the brochure boasts, it took Fort Lauderdale just two months to recoup its investment.
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> The “number of cars booted” was up 1400%” in that city -- 600 cars booted in just eight months, leading to a bounty of over $200,000. The revenue boost for Monroe Community College, another AutoVu™ client, was 750%.
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> Mayor Garcetti needs the money, because he squandered millions of dollars defending against a [lawsuit](http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B259868.PDF) that asked for nothing more than that the City stop allowing Xerox to be the adjudicator of parking ticket appeals, given that Xerox is a private company that loses money whenever those appeals succeed.
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> The Mayor lost the lawsuit on August 6, 2016 and so was required to hire City employees to replace the Xerox adjudicators. “Additional costs are anticipated,” the LADOT Director wrote.
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> “Tickets should be used to manage parking, not as a revenue source, and that is what I am going to look to do,” Mayor Garcetti wrote, according to the *Daily News* during a chat session on the website *Reddit* shortly after being elected.
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> So call off the dragnet, Mr. Mayor. Please.
>
> *(****Eric Preven*** *is a* CityWatch *contributor and a Studio City based writer-producer and public advocate for better transparency in local government. He was a candidate in the 2015 election for Los Angeles City Council, 2nd District.* ***Joshua Preven*** *is a CityWatch contributor and teacher who lives in Los Angeles.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.*

  - [  Previous Article **Council Finally Steps Up On Mansionization Issue … Are McMansions Now Dead?** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12254:council-finally-steps-up-on-mansionization-issue-are-mcmansions-now-dead&catid=312)
- [  Next Article **Reinventing the Neighborhood Council System** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12251:reinventing-the-neighborhood-council-system&catid=312)
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