Automated cameras blanket Pittsburgh, generating record number of tickets and millions of dollars in fines

Automated surveillance cameras now blanket most of Pittsburgh, generating a record number of tickets and tens of millions of dollars for the city. 

Artificial intelligence-directed license plate readers are mounted on enforcement cars, surveillance cameras peer down from overhead and there are red-light cameras at intersections. Warnings are being used for drivers, who must obey the rules or it will cost them. 

Here in the Steel City, Pittsburgh Parking Authority Executive Director Dave Onorato has made the authority a nationwide leader in the deployment of AI to enforce parking laws, having spent millions of dollars on state-of-the-art surveillance technologies. 

And it's paid off, at least monetarily. The authority is now issuing about 30,000 tickets a month, and in the last three years, revenues have risen from $48 million to $53 million. But critics said all that surveillance comes at other costs. 

"It's great for the parking authority to have more revenue," University of Pittsburgh professor David Harris said. "I get that it's good for them. The question is: is it good for my city and is it good for me and my neighbors?" 

While the authority said the use of the surveillance is neither a money grab nor an invasion of privacy, Onorato maintains it doesn't use the license plate readers to track anyone or share that information with police. 

"We're not a big brother looking at what you do," Onorato said. 

But Harris said it's still publicly funded surveillance watching the public's every move. 

"The parking authority version of this may be at the low end of the surveillance totem pole, but it is surveillance of the entire city," Harris said. 

Drivers caught operating vehicles in the bus-only lane face a $25 fine, and drivers can expect a ticket in the mail if they park in the purple parking zones. The authority has also mounted 90 cameras over the city's bike lanes, and if a driver lingers in one for more than 90 seconds, they can be ticketed. 

"We're not here to make decisions on what's fair," Onorato said. "We're here to enforce the laws that are on the city books."

Still, the measures do have their supporters. BikePGH shared a video of a cyclist imperiled while getting around a FedEx truck parked in a bike lane, and the organization said the surveillance cameras have made their life safer. 

"We've seen it work around town," Eric Boerer of BikePGH said. "The areas that have the automated enforcement, people stop parking in bike lanes."

But Harris believes there should be more public discussion before the authority buys more surveillance technology. 

"This is a slippery slope," Harris said. "It's something we ought to be discussing. We should have public input on just what we want in our city."

But beware: All of that technology is very efficient. Last year, the authority issued 310,000 parking tickets; that's 66,000 more tickets than the year prior.