Parking tickets are much more reasonable to delegate than a moving violation.
You don't have to stop the violator, because they're usually not present, and you can leave the ticket on the vehicle.
The circumstances that lead to a finding of violation are subject to less dispute. Cyclist claims light was green, citizen enforcer claims light was red, is harder to prove vs parker says time was 5:30 and citizen enforcer says time was 4:30. Some parking tickets are more sensitive to location -- if the vehicle is very near the boundary between acceptable and not acceptable, perhaps an escalation to a sworn officer is in order, but parking in a red zone / parking in a bike lane / parking in disabled without a visible permit is usually clear cut.
Wasn't talking about a particular infraction specifically, just in general giving citizens police-ish powers seems open to abuse. For example, it gives you something that you can hold over someone's head/blackmail them with, "gimme X or I'll submit this ticket". There's also the possibility of lying in various forms (e.g. photoshop or otherwise fake a picture to submit).
These problems exist to some extent with professionals too, but it's easier to work on the trust angle with a small pool of salaried people that presumably want to keep their jobs for a long time, as opposed to a large pool of random citizens for whom this is a side gig or volunteer effort.
It isn't, but the problem I see is this: With so much power there should be a requirement of proof. No problem for parked cars, just take a picture. And for cyclists going through a red light? An always-on camera? Without proof I do see an increased potential for irate "enforcers" to take it out on someone. I tend to think that those who are going to volunteer are going to be a self-selecting subset of the population who take "law & order" more seriously and react more strongly to violations.
toast0|6 years ago
You don't have to stop the violator, because they're usually not present, and you can leave the ticket on the vehicle.
The circumstances that lead to a finding of violation are subject to less dispute. Cyclist claims light was green, citizen enforcer claims light was red, is harder to prove vs parker says time was 5:30 and citizen enforcer says time was 4:30. Some parking tickets are more sensitive to location -- if the vehicle is very near the boundary between acceptable and not acceptable, perhaps an escalation to a sworn officer is in order, but parking in a red zone / parking in a bike lane / parking in disabled without a visible permit is usually clear cut.
TulliusCicero|6 years ago
These problems exist to some extent with professionals too, but it's easier to work on the trust angle with a small pool of salaried people that presumably want to keep their jobs for a long time, as opposed to a large pool of random citizens for whom this is a side gig or volunteer effort.
nosianu|6 years ago
wanderer2323|6 years ago
mrtweetyhack|6 years ago
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