Camera enforcement shutdowns

Municipality of Rotterdam

In Rotterdam, there are areas or lanes that some vehicles are not allowed to drive in for various reasons. Cameras with license plate recognition check whether a car is allowed to drive here.

Last change on 26th of March 2025, at 14:33 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Other algorithms
• Impact assessment: DPIA
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

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Begin date

12-2014

Contact information

[e-mail]

Link to publication website

https://www.rotterdam.nl/milieuzone-maasvlakte-rotterdam

Link to source registration

Algoritmeregister Rotterdam - Algoritme

Responsible use

Goal and impact

PURPOSE: The purpose of this application is to check whether people are complying with the closed traffic restrictions. These are areas where you are not allowed to drive certain cars and other vehicles for various reasons. This is arranged this way because the Municipality of Rotterdam wants to improve the air quality and liveability in Rotterdam. The Municipality also wants to encourage people to use clean and sustainable modes of transport more often.

IMPACT: If the camera detects a car entering a closed area, a photo is taken. Based on a photo of a license plate, enriched with RDW data and any exemptions, a computer programme checks whether a vehicle has access to a particular closed area. If this is not the case, this photo and its information are assessed by an authorised officer. The consequences for citizens may be that a fine is imposed unfairly. However, this is overcome by the assessment of a boa. The use of cameras may make citizens feel that they are being recorded everywhere. Due to the algorithm application, only license plates are captured, persons are blurred.

Considerations

To achieve the goal of closed-circuit areas, as many people as possible must obey the rules. This means the highest possible chance of catching offenders during all times of the day. That is why the control is carried out with cameras hanging in the same place and license plates are checked automatically. Other ways to achieve this goal have also been sought. Such as occasional checks by a boa or the use of mobile cameras that are always in different places. These other ways are not good enough to achieve the goal

Human intervention

There is human intervention, the BOA checks the various factors on which a fine has been issued and then sends the data to CJIB.

Risk management

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Legal basis

Exemption policy zero emission zone Rotterdam 2025 and Zero-emission zone for vans and trucks

Links to legal bases

• Ontheffingenbeleid nul-emissiezone Rotterdam 2025: https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/gmb-2024-190099.pdf
• Verkeersbesluit: Zero-emissiezone Rotterdam 2025: https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/gmb-2024-190099.pdf

Elaboration on impact assessments

1. No IAMA was performed because it is a low-risk algorithm application. This is due to human intervention. The BOA checks the various factors on which a fine was issued and then sends the data to CJIB

Impact assessment

Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)

Operations

Data

Vehicle features

Links to data sources

Voertuigkenmerken: RDW Zakelijk

Technical design

ANPR cameras take pictures of license plates of vehicles that enter a certain area with a (vehicle-specific) closed zone. Based on the photo, a digital message is sent to a central software package. Vehicle information is added to this message. Based on this enriched message, an analysis is performed as to whether the vehicle is allowed in the area and if not and if applicable, whether an exemption has been granted to that specific vehicle. This information is used to determine whether the particular vehicle was lawfully allowed to enter that particular area. If it is determined that the particular vehicle was not allowed to enter the area, the enforcement process follows.

In the enforcement process, a visual check follows: the accuracy of the violations found and the completeness of the corresponding information is checked daily by boas. The boa then decides whether vehicle is in violation. Only after approval, the offences are forwarded to the administration of enforcement, which collects the necessary data of the offence and then forwards it to CJIB (Central Judicial Collection Agency). CJIB then sends the fine to the owner of the vehicle.