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Part 5 of 7 · Parking permit issuer series ~5 min read

Why enforcement is the hard part

A permit system without enforcement gradually stops meaning anything, and enforcement is where a mildly annoying facilities process becomes a genuinely unpleasant one.

Key takeaways

  • Most unauthorised parking is a one-off with a reason.
  • Graduated response: notice, then conversation, then something formal. Slowly.
  • Never an automatic penalty. A person decides every time.
  • Number plate recognition creates a movement record; decide about that explicitly.
  • Measure whether enforcement is needed before building any of it.

What is actually happening

Causes of unauthorised parking incidents over one quarterA bar chart with four bars showing incidents in a quarter. One-off with a reason: thirty-four. Did not know the rules: eleven. Visitor in the wrong bay: nine. Repeatedly with no permit: three. A note says three people are the actual problem and an enforcement regime hits all fifty-seven.020406080~34One-off, a reason~11Did not know the rules~9Visitor, wrong bay~3Repeatedly, no permitIncidents in a quarterThree people are the actual problem. An enforcement regime hits all fifty-seven.
Fig 1. A quarter of unauthorised parking by cause. Designing enforcement for the last bar and applying it to all four is how a parking policy becomes notorious.

The first bar is people with a genuine one-off reason: a hospital appointment, a heavy delivery to carry, a car that would not start on the usual route. Those are not violations in any meaningful sense and treating them as such is where the resentment comes from.

The last bar is the actual problem, it is small, and it is almost always known to everybody already. A conversation resolves most of it and does not require any system.

Graduated, and slow

The graduated response to unauthorised parkingA vertical chain of five steps entered by a box labelled A car without a permit in a permit bay. Step one asks whether it is the first time, checking the record; if so it exits to A note on the screen, polite and explaining. Step two asks whether it is the second or third within a quarter; if so it exits to An email from a person, asking. Step three asks whether it is repeated after that with no explanation; if so it exits to A conversation, face to face. Step four asks whether it is still repeated, deliberately. Step five leads to something formal, with a person deciding, always. A note says four steps happen before anything formal and almost nothing reaches the fifth box.AWS ACCOUNTA car without a permitin a permit bayFirst time?check the recordA note on the screenpolite, explainingyesSecond or third?within a quarterAn emailfrom a person, askingyesRepeated after that?and no explanationA conversationface to faceyesStill repeated?deliberatelySomething formala person decides, alwaysFour steps before anything formal. Almost nothing reaches the fifth box.
Fig 2. The graduated response. Its slowness is the design: almost every case resolves in the first two boxes and never becomes a confrontation.
  • Compute
  • App integration
  • Security & identity
  • People

No automatic penalties

A system that issues a charge automatically will issue one to somebody who was bringing a colleague to hospital, and the cost of that single event exceeds the entire value of the enforcement regime.

Every action beyond a polite note goes through a person who can see the context, and that person needs to be someone with the standing to decide not to act.

Before installing cameras

What number plate recognition actually creates

  • A record of when each employee arrived and left, every day, indefinitely.
  • That record will be requested for something other than parking. Attendance, an investigation, a dispute.
  • It is personal data about staff, collected for one purpose, and using it for another needs care.
  • The parking problem it solves is three people a quarter.
  • If it goes in anyway: a short retention, a stated purpose, and an explicit rule about who can query it and for what.
  • Ask first whether the problem justifies the record. Frequently it does not.

The second line is the one to think hardest about. A system installed for parking enforcement becomes an attendance record the first time somebody senior asks a question it can answer, and there is rarely a mechanism in place to refuse.

Measuring whether it is needed

How to test whether parking enforcement is needed before building itA horizontal row of five boxes. Count incidents for a month, by hand. How many repeat? Usually very few. Talk to those people: it usually works. Recount a month later. Probably solved, with no system at all. A note says most workplace parking enforcement problems are three conversations.TRY THIS FIRSTCount incidentsfor a month, by handHow many repeat?usually very fewTalk to those peopleit usually worksRecounta month laterProbably solvedwith no system at allMost workplace parking enforcement problems are three conversations.
Fig 3. The cheapest available approach, and the one to exhaust before building anything. It frequently works.
  • Machine learning
  • Analytics
  • People

This is genuinely the recommendation. The enforcement machinery is the most expensive part of a parking system in social terms and frequently addresses a problem that a small number of conversations would have resolved permanently.

What the permit system contributes

A record of who holds a permit and for which vehicle, so that a question can be answered quickly and correctly. That is nearly all of it, and it is the part worth building.

The rest — detection, escalation, penalties — should be added only if counting shows a problem that conversation did not solve, which in most workplaces it will not.

Next: what all of this costs to run.

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