In today’s Hartford Courant a report by Bill Leukhardt announced that the “New Britain Police Department could get a license plate scanner”. He furhter reported that when they tested the device here in New Britain for a period of ten minutes they found three cars known as “Ticket Scofflaws” owing the city a sum of $l,100 in outstanding tickets.
As Frank Smith Says NB had posted on last November 5th. many benefits could be derived from employing this device for our city. Not only catching up with ticket scofflaws but unregistered vehicles, and wanted criminals that have outstanding warrants.
Removing unregistered cars from our highways will be reducing the uninsured motor vehicle accidents within our city our insurance premiums will eventually be reduced accordingly.
I wish to urge every member of the City Council to support the purchase of this device as being requested by our police department.
23 comments:
The article stated this device will help in collecting "thousands of dollars" in unpaid parking tickets owed the city and can be
upgraded to assisting with property
tax bills? If we have thousands in
unpaid parking tickets out-standing
how much money is due the city in
unpaid car taxes? Seems nobody at city hall can answer that question?
Just because it works in one city with easily 10 times the parking meters than NB does not mean it will pay off here.
The COuncil should look at the facts and see if it will pay off the huge costs up front. Every town, NB included, will be getting less state money...it needs to be spent wisely and bells and whistles that promise to deliver great results need to be proven or we'll end up with another budget deficit.
Just because it works in one city with easily 10 times the parking meters than NB does not mean it will pay off here.
The Council should look at the facts and see if it will pay off the huge costs up front. Every town, NB included, will be getting less state money...it needs to be spent wisely and bells and whistles that promise to deliver great results need to be proven or we'll end up with another budget deficit.----What a lunatic!!!!
Obviously a liberal loon that wants to prevent thugs who run around with unregistered, uninsured cars from getting caught by the police. Who in their right mind could argue against collecting taxes. A similar system in Philadelphia generates $186 million per year for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. While New Britain is much smaller than Philadelphia, it will obviously bring in a proportional amount of payments. How is it that after the program was instituted in New Haven, that New Haven has since become the town in Connecticut with the highest compliance of motor vehicle taxes (approximately 98%) of any town in Connecticut. Soon after the program was implemented in New Haven, people stood in line for hours to pay their taxes. The lines became such a problem, that Mayor Destefano had to extend the hours for the tax collector's office to allow people to pay their taxes into the evening hours.
Where are the lines at New Britain City Hall????
Nancy Pelosi has just proposed a $2.2 billion bailout for San Francisco. According to Pelosi, this country must preserve San Francisco "values." Where is the government bailout for New Britain, or don't we have the kind of values the Democrats want to preserve?
You can thank the Democrats for even having car taxes. Republican Governor Jodi Rell proposed eliminating car taxes last year.
It was the Democrats in the legislature that rejected her plan, insisting on continuing the car taxes because it punishes "the rich" for having their fancy expensive cars in Greenwich. So if you are not happy with being classified as "rich" and don't consider your car fancy or expensive, tell it to the Democrats who are the ones making you pay that repressive tax in the first place!
Frank,
The City has been evaluating this technology for several weeks. Trolling the parking garages alone yielded many violations.
The State of Connecticut Motor Vehicles Department is a road block in downloading MV data regarding registration and insurance. New Britain has various scofflaws not just the parking ticket / property tax kind. Too many people continue to drive with expired or illegal registration, misregistered cars, no insurance, etc.
We may need state legislation to free up the data.
Mark Bernacki
To the idiot who does not know how much is owed the city it is in the $$Millions in unpaid overdue motor vehicle taxes alone. Parking ticket scofflaws are another issue altogether. And the cost for one of these devices is only $20k. It has already paid for itself and we did not even buy one yet.
More importantly it can be used to assist as an investigative tool for the police. All reading are coordinated by GPS enabling the police to find critical locations of individuals at a defined point in time. A tremendous advantage in crime fighting tools.
Ask the right person like the Tax Collector and you'll get the answers you seek.
Alderman Bernacki:
The regulations on the use of the computerized data are such that only a sworn police officer can access the computerized database. This is a federal regulation that is established by the FBI, who owns and operates NCIC (the national criminal information computer) database, so even state legislation is not going to help you. The use of computer inquiries for parking authorities is prohibited with one big exception--when the parking program is run by the police department. This is the very reason why the parking violations division is run by many police departments in Connecticut.
I have a proposal that would resolve many of the issues involving the use of the boot camera. We all know that the vehicle owners can get violent when they interrupt the booter in the process of booting the vehicle. We also know that only a police officer can access the database to query registrations that are canceled for insurance, misuses of plates, expired registrations and querying for outstanding arrest warrants for vehicle owners or stolen vehicles.
With all this information in mind, why not establish a 2 man team as a joint effort of the police department and the parking authority. You have one parking officer and one police officer working together in the same vehicle. The parking officer is there to boot vehicles for outstanding parking tickets and overdue taxes. The police officer can use one of the Capitol Region (CAPTAIN) system computers to query registrations for expiration, misuses, insurance cancellations, etc. The police officer would do his share of towing and impounding these types of vehicles and would also be on scene to protect the safety of the parking officer against any potential violence when he is booting vehicles for parking or taxes.
Why not try it as a temporary program? If it works, you can continue it, and if you aren't satisfied, you can sell the equipment to one of the other towns that is rushing to copy New Haven's successful program. The salaries of the two officers could be charged directly to the funds collected by these two officers, so there is no direct cost to the taxpayers and any monies collected above and beyond the costs for the two officers is found money. What have we got to lose?
Re Nancy Pelosi. This lunatic wants to give away everything to illegal aliens. Goggle Nacy Pelosi's name and see this; her husband's $17million worth of StarKist Tuna stock ; Pelosi also had an Earmark attached to a bill giving millions in help to the DelMonte Foods factories in American Samoa. This earmark would enable her husband to keep from upping the minimum wage to bring it in line with companies here in the USA. This woman is the most dangerous member of Congress and already, Obama is kissing her derriere.
...but according to Ms. Pelosi's statement today, it is imperative that the American people preserve San Francisco values!
There is a way that the parking enforcement officers could be authorized to impound vehicles whose registrations are canceled by the motor vehicle commissioner for lack of insurance. Section 14-12h authorizes "constables" to enforce this particular statute, so all the Mayor has to do is swear in the parking enforcement officers as "special constables" under C.G.S. section 7-92. The statute allows the mayor to limit their powers in such a manner that it is clear that they are only authorized to issue violations for parking and motor vehicle insurance violations and to impound vehicles.
To Anonymous,
Absolutely we will give it a try. I watched a program recently showcasing the Philadelphia Parking Authority. They had a similar device and I believe the Parking Authority personnel maintained the equipment. You are correct in that criminal information is accessed by the police via their in-car laptop computer.
The information the City seeks is registration and insurance which is maintained by the State DMV. I will find out the answer.
Thank you.
On the topic of annual car taxes-- Connecticut is one of a handful of states that extract a bounty on autos (property taxes). In talking to many business owners across the country they are SHOCKED at the level of taxation we have to bear in this State.
They never heard of an annual tax on cars and march on city hall if their house taxes exceed $1000!!!
This is why the people and business migration from this state continues.
Mark Bernacki
Town of West Hartford ordinance for their parking officers:
All regular, temporary and deputized police and security officers of the Town and of the state, men and women, including but not limited to so-called parking monitors, are hereby authorized and empowered to enforce with all reasonable means, including but not limited to arrest and summons, every provision of this article.
Alderman Bernacki,
I still think that the simplest way to access this information is to have a police officer in the van with the parking officer. You can install one of the police lap tops in the van that only he can access and then you have someone who already is authorized to run the inquiries and take whatever action is necessary. This will avoid the inevitable uphill battle you are planning to have with the state and the motor vehicle department. Who was it that said "you can't fight city hall?"
Good Luck on your battle!
It is a struggle to pay car taxes here in Ct while other state do not
tax car taxes annually. However it
is our system and when Jodi Rell proposed eliminating the car tax, she did need to show how the revenue would be made up to cities and towns that have this money budgeted.
At Frank Smith Says NB the question of how much money is past due to the city of NB for car taxes has gone unanswered. Phil Sherwood was to report on this info
but he has not to date. To the blogger who has suggested that the amount is in the "millions, just ask the tax collector" is that one
million? ten million or what? Just
what did the tax collector's office
report the number to be?
Anyone of the council members should be able to give a good number on back car taxes, they
work on the budget each year?
Obviously just another false empty promise from the high and mighty phil sherwood (sherwack). You can tell when he is lying, just look to see if his lips are moving!
BACK CAR TAXES....
I noticed on this thread an interest in the amount of back tax owed on cars.
I checked with the tax collector regarding back car taxes. The state allows municipalities to go back 15 years.
Current back car taxes (rounded) is $8 million.
Current back interest (@1.5% per month, 18% per year) is $8 million.
TOTAL : $16 million
The City recently changed the third party collection agency and has had great success according to the tax collector. The City maintains the collection rights for the last 3 fiscal years since most of the delinquent taxpayers pay within this time frame. Years 1993-2004 are sent to the collection agency.
The City is NOT charged for this service. The collection agency receives a percentage of the collection.
I hope this is useful information.
Mark Bernacki
Thank you Mr. Bernacki for finally
getting to the bottom of this un-answered question. 16 Million dollars is due to the city in back car taxes. That is not
a small number when you consider that our budget fell short last year and will most likely fall short again this year. The question is whether to expand the Plate Finder to incorporate the collection of car taxes? It is working well in the city of New Haven it brought people in, in record amounts to pay-up. It isn't kindest way to have to collect but then again if you own and drive a car in this state, it's the law.
Imagine how it would help the city if people were standing in line fighting for a chance to pay the $8 million like they were in New Haven last year? All it took in New Haven was the threat of the city seizing their cars.
Catch the criminals with the plate finder.
so much for Phil Sherwood and his promises. It took a Republican to muster enough political muscle to get the information out of the tax collector! ext time Phil, only make promises you can keep!
And political muscle it takes
to get the answer from the tax collector.
Back to the gym Phil.
Thanks Mr. Bernacki. It is comforting to know that at least one elected official is still willing to share public information with the very public who is paying the bills.
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