WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Think twice before you pick a parking spot in the city of Wilkes-Barre.
"People are going to start getting tickets when they park where they shouldn't," said Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown.
Wilkes-Barre is using new technology from a company called Municipal Parking Services. They're called "safety sticks," and there are ten of them scattered around the city.
"They are in spots that are high-violation areas, safety issues, fire hydrants, handicapped meters. Also, there are some that are lanes of traffic where people have a tendency to park," said Rob Sliker, with the city's parking enforcement.
"We do have parking enforcement officers, people out five days a week, but they can't hit every place, so this will be an addition to the parking enforcement officers that are out there," the mayor explained.
The safety sticks are installed and monitored by the company at no cost to the city. The sticks do all the work; cameras inside take time-stamped photos when a car parks and when it leaves.
"That info is then sent to the cloud, which goes to an office in Boston where it's reviewed, and if everything is OK, a citation is mailed out to the vehicle owner," Mayor Brown said.
City officials say that every month they'll get a report of citations issued at each safety stick location.
For every $25 parking ticket issued, Municipal Parking Services gets a $2 cut.
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