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Are headcams the answer?by Bill Blakemore - 09:01 on 26 June 2009 An invitation to speak to the BPA's south west region meeting yesterday was a good opportunity to discover what the key issues in parking enforcement are in one of the UK's gentler regions. Heading to the west meant for me a return to an area full of happy memories: I spent three years at the university in Bristol, and had family holidays as a child in Devon and Cornwall. The BPA had invited me to speak at their meeting in Exeter, and I discussed the local relevance of foreign registered vehicle traffic enforcement with parking managers from local authorities across the area including Bristol City, Taunton Deane Borough, Bath & North East Somerset and Cornwall County Council.  Although perhaps not their top priority - Exeter is after all about 250 miles from Dover and other main entry ports - the FRV problem still has an impact here. Dorothy Miley, outgoing chair of the regional group, told me about a small number of persistent evaders from France and Greece who needed to have their vehicles clamped in order to be dissuaded from offending. My talk followed on from a fascinating presentation by Andrew Bradley of NSL Services about the use headcams by parking attendants. I confess I had previously wondered whether this was taking technology a step too far - did the public accept this kind of approach? And when he said that the first cameras weighed more than one kilo and were attached to the head by a strap made out of "underpants elastic" I started to have some sympathy for an enforcement officer operating on the 'bleeding' edge of parking technolgy. It seems that things have moved on a lot since those early days of headcams. Cameras are now lighter and so more portable, battery life longer, data storage cheaper and the use of this technology has been approved by the Information Commissioner. The audience had concerns about how to protect the data but no-one was in any doubt that in certain circumstances headcams had a place. Andrew showed us a video, shot by a parking attendant's headcam, of an incident where two youths, one driving an Aston Martin, the other a Lamborghini, got annoyed with the attendant for photographing their number plates - they were parked blocking a cycle lane. The video evidence was gripping as we watched and listened to the confrontation, which ended with the attendant's hand-held still camera being seized and the men speeding away with a squeal of tyres. The offenders were caught and successfully prosecuted for the theft of the camera, on the basis of the video evidence. Three things in the film left me puzzled. Firstly, what would have happened had the vehicles been foreign registered (well I would ask that, wouldn't I?) Secondly, why did they take the still camera but not try and seize the headcam? and thirdly, if you drive a Lamborghini how bothered are you about a parking ticket! 
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Are headcams the answer?What ever happened to Sleeping Beauty - the cross-border enforcement directive?Sparks travels to Newcastle and spends a morning with a bailiffSparks goes to the seaside and learns the new meaning of 'foreign'SPARKS heads east to win new membersMaltese visit highlights traffic challenges in one of Europe's smallest countriesForeign vehicles are invisible on the roads |
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