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When do we use this?

Virtual Chalking allows a patrol officer to capture and time stamp an image of a vehicle for the purpose of "Chalking" it. 
For example: If a vehicle is parked and the owner is going to purchase a permit, there would be a grace period to allow the client to obtain the permit and return to the vehicle to display the permit. Alternately, in areas where parking is provided on a timed basis where a vehicle can park free for 2 hours, the officer can virtually chalk the vehicle on a first pass earlier in the day and then be able to check the vehicle later in the day to determine if it has been parked longer than the permitted time frame.

What is E-Chalking (Virtual Chalking)?

  • Virtual chalking, or e-chalking is an electronic process that mirrors how an officer would manually chalk a vehicle's tire, in order to see how long they have been parked
  • Virtual chalking creates a Time-Stamped image, of both the license plate & the entire car, in order to track how long they've been parked
  • Virtual chalking provides an image that can be attached to the violation and is acceptable in a court-of-law, provided the date/time stamp is visible & clear. 
  • When LPR software is capturing plates, officers can simply click "Virtual Chalk"  to create/save the image 

Note:

If a manual plate entry is performed, then an image must be captured manually to be added in the vehicles information/violation.

 

The image that exists in the system from a chalk is part of the violation, unless the patrol officer deletes the image. 

When issuing a violation, the handheld device will use the chalked image as the first image for this violation. At that time, a patrol officer can take additional photos if necessary. 

The Time Stamp shows the date & time that the image was taken, in the bottom right-hand corner of the image. 

  • Effectively, the chalk image has a stamp of the time/date the vehicle was first chalked on file
  • This time-stamp can be used later as a reference picture to determine whether or not a violation should be issued 
  • If a violation is issued, the chalk image becomes one of the first images associated with this violation 
  • The image is stored, UNLESS the patrol officer deletes the image. 

Why "Chalk" a Vehicle? 

  • The process of chalking a vehicle is quickly simplified using OPS-COM. The handheld units can virtual chalk & time-stamp images of the license plates as plates are being scanned (in the case of LPR) and are recorded/saved. If a violation is issued, that chalk-image is the first image connected with the violation 
  • Chalking vehicles manually is time consuming, so being able to virtually-chalk vehicles makes a time-efficient solution for a necessary aspect of parking management
  • There are a multitude of reasons to chalk vehicles; 
    • Most prevalent being that by e-chalking a vehicle, you are able to track duration of parking, if the vehicle is parked in a time-limited lot
    • Allows you to manage violations and potential violations in a time-saving manner, as officers are no longer needing to get out of the vehicle to manually chalk it. 
    • Stores photographic evidence that could be used as proof should a violation be issued and then appealed

How to "Chalk" a Vehicle on the Handhelds:

  •  

    1. Log into OPS-COM on a handheld as an end user. The ParkAdmin Menu Page will display.
    2. Tap the Search Vehicle menu item to open the Vehicle Search window. 
      Enter a plate number and tap the search icon. In this case, we are using AAWXY410  as our example. 
    3. The screen will refresh with a list of valid vehicles. 
    4. Long press the listed vehicle to access the advanced information screen.
    5. Note the Virtual Chalk button. Tap Virtual Chalk to access the chalking function and information screen.
    6. To capture an image, tap on the image icon to enter camera mode. 
    7. Snap an image.  The screen refreshes with the image of the vehicle in a thumbnail view.
    8. Tap Save to save the chalking timestamp
    9. Allow 10 minutes to pass and compare the chalking captures.
    10. Repeat steps 1 through 3 above.
    11. The screen will refresh, and we can see in the red text, a note indicating the vehicle was chalked 10 minutes ago.
    12. Long tap on the listing to bring up the advanced information again.  Note: If you tap the information box, you will see a full frame view of the image captured.

    How can we verify the vehicle chalking, in the event of a dispute/appeal? 

    The question has come up often, as to what proof we'd be able to show for when a virtual chalking has occurred. The first important rule when chalking is to be sure to capture an image. If you read the plate using the camera LPR/OCR capture, the image will automatically attach the the chalking record with a date stamp in place. 

    If a violation is subsequently written up on the vehicle, this chalking image will also be saved with the violation information.

    If you enter the plate in manually please remember to also capture an image of the vehicle when chalking. 

    Here is a sample of the plate read image.

    Along with that image when performing a virtual chalking the handheld unit will store a full frame image, with the date stamp at the bottom right of the image.

    Here's a close up of the Time and Date stamp.

 

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