Massapequa Park To Use Sensors To Detect Illegally Parked Vehicles
MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Be careful where you decide to park your car.
Massapequa Park will be the first Long Island municipality to use electronic sensors embedded in the street to detect illegally parked vehicles.
Police can quickly slap a $25 fine on the vehicle after the wireless discs notify them of the violation by transmitting a signal to the officers' cellphones.
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Officials said the new technology has nothing to do with raising revenue. Officials also said the electronic sensors would only be installed in fire and handicapped parking zones, crosswalks and turn light areas in addition to corner radiuses.
"For us it's a safety issue," Mayor James Altadonna Jr. told CBS 2's Scott Rapoport.
Altadonna said the new system comes in response to a rash of illegally parked cars that's resulted in all sorts of problems.
"They're parking in front of fire hydrants. They're parking in front of cross walks," he said.
Add to that budget cuts that have reduced the number of code enforcement officers to just four and village officials say the new system is necessary.
Some are not pleased with the "big brother" aspect of the technology.
"I don't like everybody watching me, everywhere in every tree, every building, every street corner. I mean, it's ridiculous," he told WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs.
"What happens when somebody comes into town for the first time wants to stop into my shop for ten minutes, gets a parking ticket and then they never come back?" asks Quick-Stop Deli owner Ajay Singh.
"Everywhere you go you got no privacy," another person told Rapoport.
Village officials said the sensors will be tried on an experimental basis starting in November. The sensors will be placed in 50 spots near the Park Boulevard business center.
If the trial proves successful, the sensors could become permanent by the first of next year.
Do you think this is a case of big brother gone too far? Sound off in the comments section below!
