A Tel Aviv Municipal Court dismissed a ticket for double-parking issued to a car on Yeffet Street in the Yaffo area after the owner challenged the enforcement of parking violations by the city with the use of cameras. The owner of the vehicle claimed the use of cameras to permit the city to send fines to vehicle owners is an invasion of one’s privacy.

The court ruled the city has not received authorization to use cameras to monitor parking violations from Knesset, and therefore, their use is an invasion of privacy and illegal, Ynet reports.

Judge Itai Hermlin concluded that the use of surveillance cameras to enforce parking  violations is highly problematic as they capture many other things that are not relevant to parking infractions. Tel Aviv has 15 such cameras in the city, and the decision will likely have ramifications for many other municipalities who enforce parking fines by using cameras. It is also reasonable to believe the judgment will also be used to appeal summonses.

The judge explains “first and foremost, many people are photographed who did not commit any offense but passed through a street as a passerby”. The court added, “The cameras document passersby, what they were wearing, what their business in the street was and if this took place on a weekday or Shabbos and so on and so forth.”

The court feels the fact the cameras photograph a person getting out of a vehicle next to the vehicle receiving a summons represents a severe invasion of one’s privacy.

After the court determined the city installed the cameras without legal authorization, it invalidated the parking summons given to the owner of the vehicle in question.

The Ynet report adds in this case, the camera is exclusively for documenting parking violations and not used for security or any other purpose. The report adds the city maintains the parking enforcement cameras are legal and provide a legitimate tool for parking regulations enforcement and therefore, the city will consider appealing the ruling.

It is also noted that the issue of privacy protection came up in the Supreme Court and the state in its response joined the position of the municipality, according to which enforcement by means of parking cameras is allowed if carried out legally, and even regulated the matter in procedure. Parking enforcement in the city of Tel Aviv-Yaffo through parking cameras will be continuing at this time despite the court’s ruling.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)