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Find SF parking cops

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Re: Find SF parking cops

#391

Post by varenc »

RS-232 wrote: post #327
jcalvinowens wrote: post #324

I gotta say, it's incredibly inconsiderate and thoughtless to publish the real time location of a bunch of public safety officers in an individually identifiable way. I understand the sentiment, and I appreciate the hackery... but you put these people at risk today. You need to think much more carefully about how you approach things like this in the future.

I disagree. There should be no expectation of privacy for any public officer. Things like this website, body cameras, and FOIA requests are all for the public good. Expose corruption and keep everyone safer with a little accountability.

> There should be no expectation of privacy for any public officer

It's worth noting that SF Parking Control Officers aren't "police" by most any definition. They're not sworn, and they don't qualify as peace officers under California law. They can't execute warrants, make arrests, or carry firearms, etc. They work under the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), not the SFPD.

Their enforcement powers are limited to issuing parking citations, ordering tows, and directing traffic. About the only thing they share with actual police is the word "Officer" in the job title. Tracking these folks is about equivalent to tracking individual USPS employees.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#392

Post by thisOtterBeGood »

You could imagine that it won't work for long after publishing this. I would've either used it for myself and my friends or messaged the city about this straight away, so they can avoid things like that.

I don't like these kind of apps that allow people to be smart around regulations that should apply for everyone.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#393

Post by varenc »

Barbing wrote: post #345
jcalvinowens wrote: post #324

I gotta say, it's incredibly inconsiderate and thoughtless to publish the real time location of a bunch of public safety officers in an individually identifiable way. I understand the sentiment, and I appreciate the hackery... but you put these people at risk today. You need to think much more carefully about how you approach things like this in the future.

Thank you for thinking about the safety of our neighbors. May I ask whether you've considered the unique vehicles the parking enforcement agents use? SFMTA is hard to miss in their 3-wheelers--believe it's the Westward Industries "GO-4" Interceptor. I may have a blind spot here (like someone with access to an armed drone fleet could have made use of the map?), but essentially all private citizens will see these unmis…

The 800,000 pairs of human eyeballs aren't hooked up to a public real-time reporting system? Functionally, this is pretty different. Could argue either way.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#394

Post by 4gotunameagain »

thisOtterBeGood wrote: post #392

You could imagine that it won't work for long after publishing this. I would've either used it for myself and my friends or messaged the city about this straight away, so they can avoid things like that. I don't like these kind of apps that allow people to be smart around regulations that should apply for everyone.

> I would've either used it for myself and my friends

> I don't like these kind of apps that allow people to be smart around regulations that should apply for everyone.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#395

Post by contrarian1234 »

varenc wrote: post #391
RS-232 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. There should be no expectation of privacy for any public officer. Things like this website, body cameras, and FOIA requests are all for the public good. Expose corruption and keep everyone safer with a little accountability.

> There should be no expectation of privacy for any public officer It's worth noting that SF Parking Control Officers aren't "police" by most any definition. They're not sworn, and they don't qualify as peace officers under California law. They can't execute warrants, make arrests, or carry firearms, etc. They work under the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), not the SFPD. Their enforcement powers…

> tracking USPS employees

... that actually also sounds useful

i don't see why they shouldnt be tracked while working

Re: Find SF parking cops

#396

Post by labubunightmare »

oatmeal1 wrote: post #361
majkinetor wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes rules harder to break? It inspires kids to be knowledgeable because it can be cool? It teaches thinking outside the box? It makes you question your surroundings and not blindly following the rules?

That's a list of bad reasons. Could we get a list of good reasons?

> posts on Hacker News

> is offended by non-conformity

Re: Find SF parking cops

#397

Post by varenc »

I suspect is the source of the data: https://prdwmq.etimspayments.com/pbw/include/sanfrancisco/di...

The online tool that lets you pay a citation doesn't list the citation's address, but that one above does. It's protected with a CAPTCHA, but a very weak one that's definitely no longer effective in our current era.

My guess is the company SF hires to handles their parking citations will deploy reCAPTCHA or Cloudflare's anti-bot very soon. Though might be complicated given all the legal compliance stuff.

---

This is the company SF and many others use to handle citations: https://www.conduent.com/

brochure about their parking product: https://downloads.conduent.com/content/usa/en/brochure/total...

Re: Find SF parking cops

#398

Post by swores »

aidenn0 wrote: post #248
swores wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the double negative? You haven't included one in your telling of the question ( "Which of these is not an illegal place to park:" with the correct answer being "in a bike lane." - that's just a single negative...)

Not and illegal. "Which of these is a legal place to park" is more clear.

Ah, I hadn't thought of illegal as counting for a double negative - it's not one for how I think, but I totally see both why you said it and why it would be a double negative for some people! Thanks for explaining

Re: Find SF parking cops

#399

Post by Wurdan »

itake wrote: post #343
crazygringo wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accountability in terms of what has happened in the past , yes. But the idea that current public locations of identifiable public officers is not justifiable at all. That would be allowing individuals to be stalked in real time. That's not OK.

They are operating in public. They shouldn't have expectations of privacy. Are you against ICE agent tracking apps as well?

If you don't think this tool poses any risk to these people let's try walk through a scenario.

Let's say someone sees a parking warden they find physically attractive. They follow them for a bit and when they write up their next ticket, the stalker pulls up this app to get the officer's ID. The next day they pull up the app to see where the warden is working that day - they drive over there, and it takes them maybe half an hour to find the warden based on the lag between last-ticket-location and real-time-location. They strike up a creepy conversation and the parking warden eventually leaves, disturbed. The next day, the parking warden is working a night shift - they've been told to patrol a dark neighborhood where there are plenty of alleyways that nobody can see into...

See where I'm going with this?

Anything which allows someone to get ongoing location data for a person who they've just come across on the street is inherently a danger to the surveilled person.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#400

Post by varenc »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #395
varenc wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There should be no expectation of privacy for any public officer It's worth noting that SF Parking Control Officers aren't "police" by most any definition. They're not sworn, and they don't qualify as peace officers under California law. They can't execute warrants, make arrests, or carry firearms, etc. They work under the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), not the SFPD. Their enforcement powers…

> tracking USPS employees ... that actually also sounds useful i don't see why they shouldnt be tracked while working

Tracking the location of the truck delivering your package sounds pretty useful. And UPS/Amazon already do this. But publishing the individual personal location of each of the 500,000 USPS employees in real-time while they're working... is a bit different.
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