Rep Power: 684

Not sure if this belongs in this section, it loosely involves a parking ticket but is really about something else.

A friend of mine just told me that they recieved an unpaid parking ticket from Toronto in the mail. They called and informed them that they did NOT park in Toronto on that day due to the fact that the car is stored in the garage for the winter and is also sitting in pieces (work being done on the car - motor is out - therefore non-drivable) so it was NOT their car, the parking person obviously made a mistake. My friend was told that Toronto has a way to prove that their car WAS in fact in Toronto and parked illegally but would'nt say how. My friend was then told to call the Toronto investigations unit (police I'm guessing) and speak to someone there about this matter.

Now my questions are these:-

1. How can they prove that the car was or was'nt in Toronto?

2. What method do they use to do this - not just in this case but in ALL cases and to all of us?

3. I've heard that some police cruisers have a camera device mounted to them, and as they drive around, the camera records license plates to look for stolen cars or wanted people - Is this true?

4. Does this mean that EVERY vehicle entering Toronto is somehow monitored/filmed/etc..?


I find this info a lil un-nerving and an invasion of everyones privacy - any insight to this would be welcomed

 
Rep Power: 807

Yup, it happened to me when i was 17. My summer car was in storage and i received a parking infraction.

Of course, car under my parents name, they snapped and accused me of taking it out. Problem was my car was at my other property 3 hours away and only had theft and fire, and i had the plates at home.

I believe my folks had to provide insurance proof that the car was parked and that was enough.

 
Rep Power: 684

Well she (my friend) still has active insurance on the car but drives a winter beater for a couple months in the winter. I don't see how you can prove yer car is stored/parked and what insurance has to do with it.

Im not too concerned about her parking ticket, it's just when she told me that a Toronto parking agent told her that the city can prove the car was there - I was kinda stunned and started to wonder how can the city prove the car was there when its's up on blocks.

The ticket was dated last month.

How can the city prove any car (mine, her's, or your's) was in the city at any specific time?

 
Rep Power: 807

they cant. in my case they originally said the same thing. i still pursued it and never ended up paying. Hardly worth the fine aggravation i recall my mother saying.

 
Rep Power: 716

1) Any cruiser can do a rolling check on your license plate. They don't need to pull you over to do so, and you'll never know they've done it. But once they have done it, that license check is logged in their computers.

2) That would be giving away secrets.

3) Yes, they have at least two of them, maybe more now. They use optical character recognition, same as the 407, to automatically scan in and check your license plate. Again, a record of all plates scanned remain in a database, complete with time and gps position of scanning location.

4) Just about anyone driving or even walking in Toronto is going to end up on a variety of private and police surveillance cameras several times in a given trip.


Get used to it. The streets are a public place and there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place.

 
Rep Power: 684

Whoa ***** - that parking enforcement car is ugly - I thought they'd have much smaller cameras and be infrared and not use those lights, wow

Ya I know the streets r public and I really dont have an issue with it - maybe I made it come out wrong with my "invasion of privacy" statement - basically the invasion of privacy bit was based more on the part of them activly tracking everyone and not simply capturing ppl on open cameras
Ex:- they keep logs on all cars or ppl, where they were and at what time - why not just put trackers on everyone. <--this bits still not comming out quite right so excuse it a bit. Basically being capured on camera = ok, being tracked and logged without activly being investigated = NOT ok.

1. I know any cruiser can do a rolling check - but as I heard it second hand from my friend - they (the city ppl) made it sound like every car in the city is monitored and that they had proof of her car (specifically) - wtf?. Also a cruiser or batches of cruisers have better things to do than go and check out every parked car 24/7

2. someone somewhere knows so its not a secret - Id like to know for educational purposes - if ya know - do share (or pm me if ya like)

3.

 
Rep Power: 661

usually when this sort of things happen it is a case of a mis-read plate.
I had it happen with a nice little letter from the Hamilton Police Dept. saying I was caught on one of their Traffic Calming Radar Boards (The Big ones that tell you how fast your going), the only problem was I have never been in Hamilton, ever! the closest I have come is on the Highway headed to Niagara Falls.
It wasn't actually a ticket, just a letter recommending that I slow down.

I called them up and gave them a piece of my mind, and the cop on the other ends only response to anything I asked was "well we have photo Evidence, and they are never wrong."

I asked her to prove to me that they had the photo evidence, and she replied that she was unable to share that information with me.

I know exactly who it was too, as there were 2 Graphite Grey '06 Mitsu Lancer OZ's purchased from Wilson Mitsubishi in the same week, and our Plates are off by 1 number.

So don't worry about it too much. If they push it any further, ask for the proof, they most likely won't be able to come up with it, or if they do, you will most likely be able to prove it was no your friends.