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3h ago

Viral App That Tracked S.F. Parking Cops in Real Time Loses Data Feed Hours After Launch

City officials halted the data source the site used, citing the need for employees to work safely.

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Pedestrians pass by a parking enforcement vehicle on Mission Street. Photo by Marina Newman.
Parking control officer Dan Ryan cites a vehicle for parking illegally in front of a residence in San Francisco in 2022. A new app shows parking tickets being dispensed in the city in real time.
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Overview

  • Built by 23-year-old Riley Walz, the “Find My Parking Cops” site scraped SFMTA’s citation portal by predicting ticket ID sequences and polling new entries about every three minutes.
  • The app briefly displayed near-real-time ticket locations, officer initials, routes, and a weekly leaderboard ranking officers by total fines issued.
  • Traffic surged within hours of launch, with reports ranging from tens of thousands of visits to more than 1 million views.
  • After the site went live, the city changed its systems and the feed went dark; SFMTA said citations promote safe, fair curb use and that staff must be able to work without disruption.
  • Early snapshots of the data showed prolific ticketing and hotspots downtown, in the Mission and near Chase Center, with a notable cluster outside the Hyatt Regency bus zone.