Volunteers use smartphone to report handicap parking violators

About six months after Parking Mobility Project Director Mack Marsh presented West Lake Hills City Council with an opportunity for citizens to take part in a deputization process to limit those who abuse handicap parking, he launched a pilot program in Travis County Precinct 3.

In May and June, Marsh let the Travis County commissioners use the mobile application—which allows users to take photographs of offending vehicles for research gathering and even potential citations—for free to get a feel for the technology.

"Commissioner Gerald Daughtery has been a huge champion for us," Marsh said.

Volunteers for the Precinct 3—which encompasses most of southwestern Travis County—trial program must take three photos of the offending vehicle: from the rear showing the license plate, from the side showing the vehicle in the handicap parking space and one showing the lack of a handicapped placard. The volunteer must also enter information manually, which can be used later to verify the vehicle in the photos. The photos and data are almost instantly transported to Parking Mobility, which stores and sorts the data, Marsh said.

If the user has been deputized by the county, the photos and information can be used to issue a citation, which is not the point of the program, he said.

"The program is for education, not enforcement," Marsh said. "We don't have our volunteers out on patrol looking for violators, but rather the app allows them to go about their daily lives and gives them a tool if they see an offense."

The pilot program, which will last six months and began Aug. 7, has 35 volunteers, 24 of whom have been deputized, and issued more than 100 reports in the first month of operation.

Hays County adopted the program Nov. 11, 2013, and more than 800 reports have been submitted.

"The problem we are having now is that volunteers aren't seeing offenders anymore," Marsh said. "It is a good problem to have. We would like to put ourselves out of business."

Marsh said he attributes the declining numbers in Hays County to the educational portion of the program, something that is offered in Precinct 3 as well.

Marsh said the educational aspect is popular among offenders as well. What could be a $400–$500 ticket can be reduced to a deferred adjudication and $50 to take the course, which includes seven modules with quizzes, Marsh said.

"We are finding that a lot of offenders just don't know the rules," he said.

In Hays County two offenders have gone on to become volunteers, Marsh said.

Marsh said he hopes to have 50 volunteers in Precinct 3 by the end of the pilot program and more than 100 county-wide if the program is picked up. Travis County commissioners are expected to revisit the program in February,

Marsh said.

Travis County is just the next step in a larger plan for Parking Mobility, Marsh said.

"We hope to have a strong presence along the I-35 corridor between Georgetown and San Antonio," he said.

Marsh said he also has meetings in Wichita, Kansas and Phoenix, Arizona as well as other cities nationally in the next few months about the project.

Parking Mobility will also garner national exposure as National Geographic spent four days in Austin following the organization for an upcoming show, which will air in November or December, Marsh said.

Marsh said he expects large reductions in parking violators in Travis County within three to five years if the program goes countywide. Hays County has seen a 60 percent reduction in offenders in the first year of operation, he said, and he expects similar results in Travis County.

"Right now there is about a one in 100 chance of getting caught nationally, but we hope to change those numbers," Marsh said.