Scanauto number plate recognition

Municipality of Rijswijk

Rijswijk Council has a camera-equipped vehicle that takes photographs of parked vehicles. This enables the council to monitor paid parking and parking permits. This improves the city’s accessibility and road safety, and ensures that residents can enjoy a better quality of life in the city.

Last change on 30th of June 2026, at 8:00 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: DPIA, IAMA
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Traffic

Begin date

2019-01

Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

The purpose of the parking enforcement vehicle is to check for paid parking and parking permits. And, where necessary, to issue fines. Rijswijk Council has a scanning vehicle that takes photographs of parked vehicles within the municipality of Rijswijk. The photographs record the number plate, the vehicle, the area around the vehicle, the time and the location.

Considerations

Without a scan vehicle, parking enforcement must be carried out manually. The paid parking zone in Rijswijk is constantly expanding. A scan vehicle can help to monitor this area more quickly. This means that parking enforcement can continue to be carried out by the same number of staff. Furthermore, these checks improve the city’s accessibility and road safety, making life in the city more pleasant for residents.

Human intervention

Once the algorithm has automatically checked the scanned number plate, it determines whether or not parking is permitted. If parking is not permitted, we check this again ourselves. The inspector then checks the computer system to see whether the car is indeed parked illegally. If there is any doubt, the inspector will still go and check for themselves before issuing a potential fine.

Risk management

We have put various measures in place to protect residents’ privacy. For example, we make people unrecognisable in images of vehicles and their number plates. We do this by blurring the person depicted. We do not blur buildings, as these also serve as landmarks for the inspector. Furthermore, the images captured by a number plate camera are designed in such a way that they do not allow a view into buildings. If the algorithm determines that parking is not permitted, the inspectors receive photographs showing only the number plate of that vehicle. The other number plates are blurred.

The images are not stored in the scanning vehicle. Only authorised officials may view the images. To minimise the risk of errors, we ensure that there is always a person on hand to check the alerts generated by the algorithm.

Legal basis

The Local Government Act states that the municipal council may lay down rules governing the payment of parking charges. Such rules are known as a ‘by-law’. The municipality of Rijswijk has drawn up a parking by-law. In addition, the Administrative Enforcement of Traffic Regulations Act (WAHV) applies.

Links to legal bases

• Rijswijk Parking Regulations and Parking Charges Ordinance 2024: https://lokaleregelgeving.overheid.nl/CVDR713552/1
• Local Government Act: https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0005416/2026-06-04

Impact assessment

• Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
• Human Rights and Algorithms Impact Assessment (IAMA)

Operations

Data

Vehicle registration number, parking permit, location

Technical design

The scanning vehicle scans a number plate, and the number plate is automatically checked against the parking rights system. If the system shows that parking has been paid for or that a permit is in place, the photo and the associated data are deleted. If there is no permit or payment has not been made, parking may not be permitted. An inspector then assesses the photo taken by the scanning vehicle and the details in the Deskforce computer system. The following details are stored:

• Photographs taken

• Location where the vehicle was parked

• Time

• Date

• Vehicle details (RDW)

Following an assessment, the inspector may issue a fine, give a warning or reject the report if it appears to be incorrect. If the report is not entirely clear, an inspector will visit the location of the parked vehicle in person.

External provider

Sigmax