The Smart Boot system rolling out on Monday, November 15, is going to give Oakland motorists who have 5 or more unpaid parking citations a nasty shock. The Dellums adminstration is telling the media that they are all happy about the benefits of the SmartBoot, because it will allow motorists to remove the boot themselves once they call a toll-free number and pay off their outstanding parking tickets.

They are saying this is cool because the motorist then has 24 hours to return the boot to one of two locations in Oakland before a $25.00 a day charge to his or her credit card kicks in and that makes it way more convenient, but they aren't saying that the whole program is based on  Mobile License Plate Recognition technology that introduces an upgraded ongoing roving mobile surveillance of Oakland cars.

What makes the Smart Boot scary, however, isn't the nifty technology that lets motorists pay up right at the moment rather than going to retrieve their cards from the tow lot; it's the related Mobile License Plate(MLPR)  recognition software that allows cruising police officers to more efficiently recognize which of the 68,000 Oakland vehicles owing 5 or more tickets are right in front of them. 

According to city documents from July 14, 2009, when the concept of allowing PayLock to service Oakland was first discussed as a possible City Council resolution, the city believes that this partnership--which costs Oakland nothing--will allow them to gain another $800,000 a year in revenue from booting cards,  almost doubling the $1MM currently collected annually. Pre the rollout of SmartBoot, the memo read by Oakland Local states that the city booted about 10 vehicles a day; the Parking Operations department believes that with PayLock support the city can double that number within the year, basically going from $1MM to $1.8MM in scofflaw dollars.

But the city of Oakland isn't the only entity that would benefit financially from Oakland rolling out the Smart Boot program--PayLock will get a major windfall.

 If you're following along with the math, if the city uses PayLock technology to boot  20 cars a day for 300 days a year, so that PayLock collects $140 on each of them, the program gives PayLock $5.MM  in revenue on the 42,000 cars booted. On those same cars, Oakland collects $1.8 MM, plus the price of the traffic tickets.( A $125 city administration fee for each booted car that goes to the city still stands, along with the PayLock fees.)

To ensure Oakland PD maximize their harvest, PayLock has provided the city of Oakland with 3 new vans equipped with MLR scanning technology and integrated its software with that used in the nine MLR cameras the city has already been using to look for stolen vehicles.

In addition,PayLock has provided the city with 90 new SmartBoots to start --and will provided more if needed, according to a memo published as part of city documentation (attached to this article as a PDF file),

What does this mean for Oakland Policy surveillance efficency? 

According to PayLock, on average, one vehicle using the MLPR software can scan 3,885 license plates per day with an average of eight hours of scanning. Since the very same system can look for and identity stolen and Amber alert vehicles as well, we should be moving into an age of machines in Oakland  that would make having multiple tickets from OAC VERY uncomfortable.

Here's what the July 14th city memo from Parking Operations to City Administrator Dan Lindheom says PayLock will offer Oakland when they rollout the program:

• PayLock will provide the City with as many boots as needed for a successful program.
• The City will also be provided with five (5) sets of Mobile License Plate  Recognition (MLPR) cameras, three (3) of which.will be installed on three (3) new  SUV type vehicles while two (2) will be portable which can be used in any vehicle.
• PayLock will provide the City with three (3) new SUV type vehicles retrofitted with  MLPR cameras.
• PayLock will provide all wireless communications for the implementation of the booting program at no cost to the City.
• Custom boot racks to be used in the provided scofflaw enforcement vehicles
• Supply, design and print 3-part seizure notices for placement on booted vehicles
• Access by City staff to PayLock web-based BootView application
• Integrate with the City's parking ticket processing and collections vendors
• Performance and financial reports

Basically, what this means is that the city's ability to use MLPR technology to scan license plates and take action has just increased a thousand fold.  As city vehicles carrying these devices cruise the town, the cameras scan the license plates of parked vehicles and flag cars that match the database lists so that officers can immediately boot the identified scofflaw vehicle and head off in search of more.

I am cool with the city stepping up ways to enforce the law, but when you combine this new on the road surveillance tool with the coming surveillance cameras in Chinatown, installed by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, I get the creeps (and a burning urge to make sure my parking ticket payments are up to date.)

Related story: Micah gets the Boot (what's it like to be SmartBooted?)