In a surprising turn of events, a viral app designed to help San Franciscans avoid parking tickets has been shut down by city officials just hours after its launch.
The app, named “Find My Parking Cops,” went live on Tuesday and quickly gained traction among residents looking for real-time information on the locations of parking enforcement officers.
With features like a leaderboard showcasing which officers generated the most revenue from fines, it attracted significant attention and sparked conversations about parking enforcement practices in the city.
However, just four hours after its debut, the app creator, Riley Walz, announced that the city’s decision to alter their website rendered his tool useless.
At 2:34 PM, Walz tweeted, “Ahhhhhh … the MTA just changed their site so I am no longer getting data!”
Erica Kato, spokesperson for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), explained the city’s actions, stating that they aimed to protect the safety of parking enforcement officers.
“Citations are a tool to ensure compliance with parking laws, which help keep our streets safe and use our limited curb space efficiently and fairly,” Kato said in an email.
While the city appreciates innovative technology that promotes legal parking, they also prioritize the safety and operational integrity of their employees.
This is not the first instance of the city taking action against a technology-driven solution for civic issues.
Previously, San Francisco’s 311 service threatened to shut down an API essential for the functionality of the AI-enabled Solve SF 311 reporting app.
In a viral post on X, which accumulated nearly a million views, Walz celebrated his “hacker project.”
He emphasized the app’s value not merely in its immediate utility but as a potential resource for data analysis and future projects related to parking enforcement.
Despite the quick shutdown, Walz has plans to share data in a downloadable format, allowing locals to analyze patterns and identify high-risk areas for parking tickets.
The inspiration for the app struck Walz after he noticed violation notices for graffiti on buildings.
He saw that these notices included complaint IDs, which were assigned systematically and made public by the city.
Curious if a similar system existed for parking tickets, Walz began his exploration, leading to the app’s creation.
The app utilized a web scraping tool to monitor the city’s payment portal, scanning for newly issued tickets and inferring the ID numbers based on established patterns.
This method enabled the app to track where parking tickets were being issued almost in real time.
As the data rolled in, some notable trends emerged.
One officer was found to be frequenting the area near the Hyatt Regency at the Ferry Building, issuing tickets for illegal parking at a specific location.
During a two-hour window on Tuesday, that officer wrote 12 tickets, accruing fines totaling $3,976.
Another officer, however, generated even more revenue in Noe Valley, issuing 63 tickets worth $6,617 the same day.
If this trend continues, the SFMTA could potentially tackle its projected $320 million budget deficit in approximately 132 years.
image source from：sfstandard
