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The National Police Agency is soliciting public comments on the problem of illegal parking.
The basic policy direction appears to be:
(1) Decriminalization of parking violations
(2) Owner liability – Collect the fine from the owner rather than the person who was driving when the vehicle was parked. This makes immediate enforcement possible.
　　　(This is a standard system in other countries, including Canada, where I lived. Basically, think of the fine as being attached to the vehicle registration/license plate.)
(3) A point system for enforcement against repeat offenders
(4) Outsourcing to the private sector

(1) is naturally necessary because it is a prerequisite for (2).
I strongly support (2). When I was in Canada, if I parked for 5 minutes, I was almost always ticketed.
　　# But when I was in an extreme hurry, I would park while accepting the risk of a fine.
　　# The fines were not very high, though.
(3) I do not think this is necessary. The use of points is bureaucratic. Instead, I think fines should increase according to the number of violations within 1 year.
(4) Outsourcing to the private sector: This presents several problems. However, these have been considered to some extent. I plan to think about them in more detail, but I have one comment concerning personal information.

　　Committee members have raised concerns that outsourcing to the private sector might require handing personal information, such as vehicle-registration data, to private companies. From my perspective as an advocate of digital identity, however, such a transfer should not be necessary. Alternatively, one might say this is a question of the scope of outsourcing.

The private contractor should only issue the ticket, while a public agency should collect the fine. The private contractor would then need only report the violating vehicle’s license-plate number to the public agency (probably the police). Consequently, no transfer of personal information should occur.

　　As for evidentiary value, it would actually be useful for license plates to have a signing function. If GPS location data, time information, and a photograph were put into XML and digitally signed by a contactless SmartCard embedded in the license plate, there would be no room for excuses. At the same time, no personal information would leak at all, so I think this would be a good solution….

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