Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Find SF parking cops

walzr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 498 posts

Re: Find SF parking cops

#441

Post by crazygringo »

Aachen wrote: post #436
crazygringo wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between being in public and being tracked. Of course they don't have expectations of privacy in terms of people being able to e.g. take photos or videos of them. The same way people can take photos of you or me. But broadcasting someone's real-time location to the whole world all day long, in real time, is something else entirely. That has never been considered part of being in public. That's tar…

> Of course they don't have expectations of privacy in terms of people being able to e.g. take photos or videos of them. The same way people can take photos of you or me. Might be a culture difference with europe but I find it rude if someone would take a picture of me without asking. I can think of few purposes (stalking, facial recognition training or tracking, sharing in a chat group to make fun of) that you can d…

Of course it's rude. But we don't criminalize behavior that is merely rude. It's rude to swear at someone or fart in their direction too.

In public, US courts have established you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Because you're in public. Someone can take photos or videos of you, whether you're in the background or whether they're zooming in on your face.

Obviously if you're getting right up in their face and refusing to go away, that turns into harassment and you can call the cops. But it doesn't matter if you're using a camera or not.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#442

Post by arghwhat »

noahlt wrote: post #250
arghwhat wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I'm from there's no concept of towing on any parking violations. No one has the right to touch your vehicle, and if the police is involved they'd just contact the owner. The police would only move a car if it's a danger to the public. A tow truck is only something you'd call for assistance, not something you fear seeing. (Parking fines suck, but the municipal ones are usually more reasonable here, even if they…

Where I'm from there's no concept of using public space to store your personal belongings without paying for it.

Care to elaborate, as that sounds rather extreme?

I don't know of a country that requires all bicycle parking in any non-private location to be paid, nor a country that requires payment for roadside parking on country roads outside cities. Heck, even within cities, only the very dense ones seem to require paid parking on smaller roads.

Public space does not imply free of any use, but rather that it is freely used by all. The purpose of paid roadside parking is to reduce demand on what quickly becomes a limited resource in dense cities.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#443

Post by throwmeaway222 »

repeekad wrote: post #384
throwmeaway222 wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So take this to the maximum, lets say in 30 years (honestly probably a lot sooner) - should police have trackers on them that give YOU accurate up to the second 3d/GPS location of all of them and done in an app that's attached to a drone that shoots people. Since they are in public this is the obvious thing you're looking for.

Keep in mind the site doesn’t track officers in real time, it reports the last location and timestamp of a ticket. Realtime police officer location data would interfere with arrests and investigation, but realtime reporting of incidents is critical public data that shouldn’t be fear mongered away. If officers giving tickets are in fear of their life, taking down a tracking website isn’t the change that keeps them saf…

I'm trying to show how people on here are saying because someone is in the public we are owed exact xyz location data of said person is fucking ridiculous.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#444

Post by Leszek »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #416
e_y_ wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're talking about public tracking: package theft

Uhhh... Seems like the problem to address is crime? It's kinda crazy what kind of third world shit people just accept as normal now

Ok, person with anonymous account name.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#445

Post by potato3732842 »

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.

Most states have a public real time map showing snow plow locations. Ask yourself why is it not a problem when their info is public.

At the end of the day what this comes down to is the current scale of parking tickets being something that needs to be backed by more violence (i.e. deploy actual cops with all their associated costs) than society would tolerate (people would complain about costs, request the resources be spent elsewhere, etc).

Re: Find SF parking cops

#446

Post by crazygringo »

hopelite wrote: post #435
Epa095 wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massive paycheck? Feel free to apply yourself https://careers.sf.gov/classifications/?classCode=8214 I dont know how far 70-100k goes in SF, but accoriding to https://www.livingwage-sf.org/living-wage-calculator/ it is barely enough for a single adult, but you better not have a child!

What the cost of living inside SF is, is irrelevant to the matter. As city employees they also have other benefits related to commuting and no one makes them commute into the city for that job that pays at minimum $70k and up to $100k in a country where the average wage is $39k...the average...and it is for *checks notes* driving around, looking, and pushing buttons all day. You seem to lack perspective, probably bec…

You seem to be the one lacking not just perspective but correct facts.

> for that job that pays at minimum $70k and up to $100k in a country where the average wage is $39k...the average...

Where are you getting an average of $39k from? The OECD lists 2024 US average salary as $82,933 [1].

So this is a job that pays from less than average to a bit more than average nationally.

But, the mean hourly wage in San Francisco is $48.15 [2], which is slightly over $100K annually. Which makes it a job that pays from well below average to average at best.

> and it is for *checks notes* driving around, looking, and pushing buttons all day.

You clearly have no concept of the kinds of dangerous physical encounters cops have with scary, crazy, threatening, lunatic people on a regular basis.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_w...

[2] https://www.bls.gov/regions/west/news-release/occupationalem...

Re: Find SF parking cops

#447

Post by potato3732842 »

Wurdan wrote: post #399
itake wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 h…

That's the example you run toward?

More likely someone gets a ticket that's bullshit, winds up paying, and this happens enough that they have their buddy wait for the person and throw a brick at them or something.

Re: Find SF parking cops

#449

Post by ARandomerDude »

eru wrote: post #409
notatoad wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there is no public good afforded by violating parking restrictions. the public good comes from enforcing them, so that parking spaces turn over quickly and remain as available as possible. circumvention of the rules for a priveleged few (like those who know how to surveil the enforcement officers) is actual corruption. this service doesn't expose corruption, it enables it.

I have some sympathies for your argument, but I suspect you are trying to prove too much: your argument could more or less justify an infinitely large fee for parking violations (or even imprisonment). Most people seem happier with small, finite amounts for these things? As a second point, I don't think parking and public goods have anything in common. Parking is _not_ a public good, and shouldn't be treated as such.…

How did you go from an argument for enforcing parking laws to infinite fees and imprisonment? Where is there such a parking law?

Re: Find SF parking cops

#450

Post by potato3732842 »

rocqua wrote: post #414
itake wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Tracking enforcement officials decreases their ability to enforce and makes them easier to target. ICE agents shouldn't be doing their enforcement. Deserve to be targeted, and given there is very little transparency to their actions, anything to check their actions is an improvement. SF parking cops are not evil, operate transparently, and limiting their capability to enforce is not important to keep rule of law appl…

>Tracking enforcement officials decreases their ability to enforce and makes them easier to target.

Why is that a bad thing? God forbid the enforcers only have the effective power to enforce where there is sufficient local support that they feel safe doing so. Sounds like a pretty effective check on power to me.

There was a case in my city a few years ago where the state police pulled someone over, found the passenger had weed on his person was in the process of arresting him but had to abort and he fled on foot because they initiated the stop in a supermarket parking lot at a busy time and the passers by were numerous and displeased enough the officers felt unsafe.

I get that people get their panties in a knot over the idea that the government might have less practical ability to enforce petty civil nuisance stuff like parking but the flip side of this is that when you need serious resource investment to do things people don't like (like arresting weed dealers, ICE raids, etc), you do a lot less of it. And that's a tradeoff that I think is very worth making.

Post reply on HN