Where illegal parkers have to fear artificial intelligence

Nikolaus Jargolla was initially amazed when he saw the first ticket for more than 40 euros. When seven more tickets arrived in the mail at short intervals, the former typesetter in a newspaper publisher began to swear. 320 euros in total for illegal parking at a supermarket in Gelsenkirchen-Hessler. Jargolla paid.

Then he went on vacation for three weeks and found four new payment requests in the mailbox when he returned. The retiree turned to a local attorney. "I don't pay the four tickets," says Jargolla on the phone.

Apparently, many in the district feel the same way as the pensioner. "It's the talk of the day here. Everyone asks everyone here if they got a ticket. Many are affected,” says Jargolla.

Ulrike Lenze can also confirm that. The owner of the Paracelsus pharmacy in town has so far been spared. “But I know from many of my customers that they have already received at least one ticket or even several. It all started in November last year. I estimate that there could have been several hundred tickets," says the 69-year-old, who is also chairwoman of the non-profit association Netzwerk GE-Heßler.

In the network's Facebook group, too, there is always great outrage about letters from Parkvision. A user shows his letter with which he contradicts the demand.

The trouble started with a new parking space surveillance at the supermarket in the town center, which the Hessian company Parkvision took over. Apparently, cameras and software are used for face recognition. Customers are probably filmed when parking and entering and leaving the supermarket. There are now a whole range of such offers on the Internet that replace control personnel and promise digital, precise, data protection-compliant recording of parking offenders.

The parking rules at the supermarket in Gelsenkirchen-Heßler have changed, but not old habits. This is not a public car park, says pharmacist Lenze, and the supermarket also has the right to determine who is allowed to park there and who is not. "That's the legal side of things, but practically everyone who wanted to buy something in the supermarket and in shops next door has parked there for the past few decades. No one bothered or cared about that. It was like a kind of common law that came about,” says Lenze.

But now that's no longer possible. Anyone who parks there and does more than just go to the supermarket, or does not even enter the supermarket, is therefore committing a violation. It's also reportedly hit people who only got out to read the parking conditions and then drove away.

Pharmacist Lenze wrote a letter to the supermarket operator and asked for an interview so that he could describe his point of view and, above all, explain exactly how the parking lot surveillance works. "But there's nothing. It's just being ignored, and that's why people are pretty angry," says Lenze.

Attorney Malte Stuckmann emphasized in the phone call that he had made this problem with the parking lot surveillance at the supermarket his "personal mission". "This is my neighborhood. This is about the local supply center Hessler. A lot of people are angry and don't go to the supermarket anymore. The other businesses suffer as a result. I want all of this to remain in place,” says the lawyer. About 60 people contacted him, including residents Nikolaus Jargolla.

The lawyer suspects "that there is a scam behind it: They assume that people would rather pay the ticket, because who would hire a lawyer when the lawyer is much more expensive than the ticket." Stuckmann has a sample letter that can be downloaded free of charge set up his homepage so that those affected can defend themselves with a professionally formulated objection.

In one case, says the lawyer, Parkvision withdrew the claim without giving a reason. "I'd like a court case to sort it all out properly. I see a large legal gray area with this type of parking enforcement. We don't know exactly what's going on yet. If the public space is allegedly not monitored, processes cannot, as I understand it, be precisely understood,” says Stuckmann.

So far, neither Parkvision nor the supermarket operator have responded to WELT inquiries. The company advertises on its homepage with the note: "Thanks to our AI parking supervision (AI = artificial intelligence, ed.) and path detection, customers are made unrecognizable and distinguished from illegal parkers." There is also the note: "Parkvision's path detection system, which is unique worldwide for customer identification was officially tested and certified by Dekra for data protection!

However, the Dekra contradicts this, the representation is not correct. "Dekra is in talks with Parkvision to immediately adapt the wording and presentation on the website to the actual scope of certification," explains a Dekra spokesman to WELT. There is also an alarm in the house of the Hessian state commissioner for data protection and freedom of information: According to a spokeswoman, "there are several complaints against video surveillance measures operated by Parkvision GmbH". The authority is currently examining the facts.

In Gelsenkirchen-Hessler, network chairman Lenze is concerned about a decline in the district. “People voted with their feet. Nobody parks there anymore. The store is empty. We are worried that the market will close soon. That would be the worst case scenario for the district,” she says. For all people who are no longer mobile, there would be a lack of shopping in the district. It would also affect the bakery and lottery ticket office next door, which depend on supermarket customers.

Resident Nikolaus Jargolla, who received twelve tickets, has already made his decision. He now drives about three kilometers further to go shopping: "You can also get good, fresh things there."

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