Does the thought of reporting people to the police give you a little frisson of excitement? Now there’s a new app called SpotSquad that makes it easy for you to report illegally-parked vehicles. Just in case being a tattletale wasn’t enough of an incentive to make you want to become a snitch, SpotSquad offers you a cut of the violator’s fine. Now ain’t that nifty?
The new mobile phone application was the brainchild of a Winnipeg, Canada startup. The idea is simple: crowd-sourcing for law enforcement in parking lots run by private owners with the hope that someday the program can be extended to include illegally parked cars on public streets, as well. The process is easy enough for anyone with a modicum of techno-savvy. The SpotSquad user simply takes a photo of the car. The application affixes a GPS tag to the photo while optical character recognition software scans and records the car’s license plate data.
Automatic Notification
Next, the user ticks off the nature of the violation from a list. SpotSquad app users can choose from expired parking meters to cars parked in spaces reserved for the handicapped. The GPS tag triggers an automatic notification process so that the parking lot operator is informed of the infraction. If the unlawful activity takes place on a public street, local police are notified. After that, it’s up to the relevant personnel to take care of the problem.
That could mean a warning, a ticket, or getting your car towed away. We’re not talking the good kind of towing away, the kind you get gratis for a broken down car you donate to Kars For Kids, but the kind of getting towed away you have to pay big bucks to correct. And the SpotSquad app user is anxious for that unpleasant kind of towing to take place. Why not? He gets a cut.
Court Of Law
For now, SpotSquad data cannot be used in a court of law as evidence. But if the mobile phone application catches on, the law might be adapted to include this type of app data in court cases. The company hopes to have its pilot program operational within a month.
For now, the app relies on an understanding between app user and parking lot owner in which fines are paid to the lot operator who then gives a percentage of the fine payment to the app user responsible for reporting the violation. There is a sliding scale for working out the percentage. SpotSquad users earn a larger percentage of fines as they report more violations. The idea is to offer a sense of competition and make reporting into a game. App users will want to be on the lookout for violations so they can work their way up the scale and earn more money.
For now, the product is only available in Canada, but the startup is confident the idea will spread to the US within a short time.
Ronn Torossian
