Garda foot patrols using mobile scanners to issue parking fines

Gardaí plan to launch more foot patrols in key traffic blackspots in the city on busy days to thwart illegal parking, but they have no intention of going to back to the old days of manually ticketing offenders.

Officers are using mobile scanner technology to read number plates of vehicles and issue automatic penalties in the post, rather that placing tickets on windscreens.

The  Galway City Joint Policing Committee heard complaints yet again among members that not enough was being done to combat illegal parking along double yellow lines, footpaths and in disabled spaces.

Some of the most vociferous remarks were reserved for parking along Market Street on a Saturday when the Galway Market outside St Nicholas’ Church was held, and illegal parking could cause long traffic snarl ups.

 Many of the members complained that some offenders committed offences in front of the Gardaí to no apparent penalty and queried why officers no longer left fines on vehicles, which acted as a deterrent to other motorists.

Chief Superintendent Tom Curley said just because motorists did not get an immediate physical ticket did not mean they had not been fined. Gardaí had the technology to scan number plates and a ticket issued automatically from the Garda control room.

“If you don’t see a Garda stepping out of a car, it doesn’t necessarily mean the ticket isn’t issued,” he explained.

For more on this story, see the current edition of the Galway City Tribune