By 
If your city allowed you to quickly and easily notify the cops of parking infractions via a simple tweet, would you? In a new Twitter initiative from Rome’s municipal government, citizens of Rome are now allowed to tweet pictures of illegally parked cars to their local police’s official Twitter account. After review, the 5-O will promptly arrive at the tweeted destination and begin issuing out fines if necessary.
Since the new initiative kicked off, Reuters reports that more than 1,100 tweets have been sent flagging vehicles in a city packed to the walls with over 2.7 million people, and a ratio of 70 cars per 100 citizens. With those numbers alone, you start to paint a clearer picture of Rome’s parking epidemic.
@raffaeleclement @raffimodaffi @PLRomaCapitale in Via Emanuele Filiberto e’ tutta #doppiafila: vista dal civico 231 pic.twitter.com/t6qVKsDguD
— Giuseppe Mazziotti (@gmazziotti) January 28, 2014
But it’s not all cherry, according to those that have been using the new Twitter service, many a times the cops arrive on the scene hours later, when violators have already long gone. Perhaps response time will pick up as manpower increases, and it’s possible this new service will help facilitate that.
Nobody enjoys receiving parking tickets, and we can’t help but wonder how a program like this would fare in the states. In more crowded cities like Los Angeles or New York it could be well served, but the bigger question is just how easily accessible do we really need or want our law enforcement? Should something like this stop at only parking infractions, or would a country-wide 911 Twitter account for those really important emergencies be better suited?
[via Mashable]
*sigh*
The beginning of the trend of neighbor turning in neighbor has truly begun. Anyone else remember that last time “turning in your neighbor” was encouraged and lauded by the state?
I mean, is it really that much different from calling in and reporting a violation?
At the same time, I see what you’re getting at. With everyone equipped with camera phones 24/7, it’s kinda scary to think that everyone around you has the power to report and capture the evidence of you doing anything wrong at any given time. :/
OK Glass, report this infraction so we have another reason to be called a “glasshole.”
lol
Snitches get stitches…
Haha, that’s awesome. I’d welcome this as I take my sweet ass time to park well in order to not interfere with others.
As for more major crimes, no thanks. 911 is where they should focus.
..
its even better since you can tweet fairly anonymously, just push enemies cars into illegal zones, tweet, get them towed, laugh at their misfortune
How are you going to push a car that’s in park without doing damage to one or both vehicles or showing obvious signs that it was forcefully moved? Cars don’t roll in park/gear.
You’ve clearly have not seen Chronicle. =.P
I’m not seeing what this has to do with Android.
Tweet from your android phone.
So should Phandroid write about every news story involving Twitter?
I can get sports scores on my Android phone. Should Phandroid start doing sports stories?
I can get weather on my Android phone. Should Phandroid start including weather reports?