Scan Cars Issue 500,000 Unjustified Parking Fines a Year

Automated scan cars that patrol Dutch streets on behalf of municipalities are generating an estimated half a million unjustified parking fines every year, according to a new report from the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, AP). The regulator examined how AI and algorithmic systems are being used in parking enforcement and found a structural error rate of more than 10 percent.

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How scan cars work and where they go wrong

Scan cars use advanced cameras to read the licence plates of parked vehicles and check automatically via AI and algorithms whether the parking space has been paid for. The images are then reviewed by human enforcers. The AP found that it is precisely the combination of human judgment and automated technology that leads to various risks and shortcomings.

The core problem is that scan cars capture only a momentary snapshot and cannot assess circumstances on the ground. They cannot see whether a vehicle is briefly stopped to load or unload, which is permitted. They also cannot detect whether a disability parking card is displayed behind the windscreen, since such cards are linked to a person rather than a vehicle registration.

Municipalities carry out an estimated 250 to 375 million scans per year, resulting in 3 to 5 million parking fines. The AP calculates that more than 10 percent of those fines are unjustified, amounting to around 500,000 incorrect fines annually. Among drivers who lodge an objection, between 40 and 62 percent are found to be in the right.

The objection process makes it worse

Drivers who receive an unjustified fine can file an objection, but the AP says the process is often complicated and time-consuming. In most cases the fine must be paid while the objection is still being processed. "This can put people in financial difficulty, particularly when errors recur," the AP stated.

Fines are typically delivered via MijnOverheid, the government's digital communications portal. If a person misses the digital notification, a digital reminder follows before a letter is sent by post. People can unwittingly accumulate multiple violations this way, causing fines to stack up.

The AP also found that not every municipality conducts the required privacy risk assessment before deploying scan cars, and that oversight of commercial companies contracted to run enforcement processes is often inadequate.

Vulnerable groups most affected

The AP notes that people with disability parking cards and those who are less digitally literate are disproportionately caught out by the system's failings. Municipalities are not sufficiently taking their interests into account when designing and implementing parking enforcement, the regulator concluded.

What the AP recommends

The AP advises municipalities to deploy more parking wardens on the street to compensate for what automated systems cannot assess. It also calls for better information to be provided about how scan car systems work, and for municipal councils to strengthen their oversight of enforcement contracts. Periodic audits and risk analyses are also recommended to identify where the technology is producing systematic errors.