Tax enforcement: Parking enforcement

Municipality of Amsterdam

To keep Amsterdam liveable and accessible, only a limited number of cars are allowed to park in the city.

Last change on 13th of July 2026, at 11:25 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: Privacy Quickscan, DPIA, The Ethical Guide
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

• Economy
• Space and Infrastructure

Begin date

2022-07

Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

To keep Amsterdam liveable and accessible, only a limited number of cars are allowed to park in the city. The council checks whether a parked car is authorised to be there – in other words, whether the driver has paid for parking or holds a parking permit. To work more efficiently, we carry out these checks using scanning vehicles. We currently use them to monitor more than 190,000 official parking spaces in Amsterdam.

The scanning vehicles are equipped with cameras and drive past parking spaces throughout the city. The cameras capture vehicle number plates and use an image recognition algorithm to identify them.

Any bystanders, unrelated number plates and other privacy-sensitive data are already made unrecognisable in the photographs whilst the vehicle is still on the move.

The number plate is sent to the National Parking Register, where a check is carried out to determine whether the car is authorised to be parked there. If it transpires that someone has not paid the parking fee, an inspector assesses, on the basis of surrounding photographs, whether there are exceptional circumstances (loading or unloading, stationary vehicles at a traffic light). In case of doubt, a parking inspector will assess the situation on the spot. If there is no exceptional circumstance, a parking fine (‘parking charge notice’) will be issued.

Increasing the likelihood of being caught promotes fairness towards those who do pay or hold a valid parking permit. By enforcing the offence of ‘stopping on the pavement’, nuisance is reduced and quality of life is improved for those who do pay or hold a valid parking permit.

Considerations

Field not filled in.

Human intervention

Human inspectors assess the footage to determine whether a special situation is taking place, such as loading or unloading, or cars stationary at a traffic light. They also check that the number plate has been read correctly. In case of doubt, a parking inspector will assess the situation on site.

Risk management

The system presents a low risk. The main risk is that the system might misread a number plate, resulting in someone receiving a fine they do not deserve.

This can happen if a letter or number on the number plate is incorrectly recognised by both the algorithm and the inspector. To manage this risk, people are given the opportunity to lodge a written objection via a website (naheffingsaanslag.amsterdam.nl) within six weeks. Via this website, people can view the photograph of the number plate and any accompanying photographs of the scene. Any bystanders, unrelated number plates and other privacy-sensitive information have been obscured in these photographs.

Elaboration on impact assessments

Parking enforcement timetable: https://open.amsterdam/woo-zoeken/detail/993959fb-b6d0-4c46-aab1-617e69100e89

Impact assessment

• Privacy Quickscan
• Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
• The Ethical Guide: https://open.amsterdam/woo-zoeken/detail/95111d95-0711-4696-a5a5-5dba50b65d3c/media/?mode=detail&view=list&rows=1&page=4&fq%5B%5D=search_s_dossiernaam:%22Ethische%20bijsluiters%22&sort=order_i_created_time%20desc

Operations

Data

Scanned number plates

Scanning vehicles equipped with automated number plate recognition drive through the city to recognise the number plates of parked cars. The data processed by the scanning vehicles consists of scanned images of number plates, together with the vehicle’s location and timestamp information. Once the parking fee has been paid, the data is anonymised after 48 hours (number plate photos and surrounding area photos are deleted; the number plate is removed from the metadata). If no parking fee has been paid, the data is retained for as long as necessary to allow for objections and appeals.

National Parking Register (NPR)

The National Parking Register is a national database in which all current parking entitlements for number plates are recorded. The register is managed by the RDW. The data is collected from parking meters and parking apps operated by local authority and commercial parking companies, parking providers and enforcement officers. Data on parking entitlements are retained in the register for up to 13 weeks after the end of the parking entitlement (accessible only to authorised staff). The data from the register are used to check whether someone is permitted to park in a particular location.

Technical design

Algorithms are used:

• to locate the number plate in the camera footage;
• to adjust the images for identification;
• to identify the individual characters on the number plate; and
• to blur any bystanders, unrelated number plates and other privacy-sensitive information in those photographs

Once a number plate has been identified and processed, the number plate data is sent to the National Parking Register for further processing. An NPR algorithm then checks the validity of parking entitlements for that number plate at a specific time and location (for information about this algorithm, see the details on the NPR website: https://nationaalparkeerregister.nl/downloads/downloads-mobiel-parkeren.html – in particular the technical documentation). A positive result means that the car has valid parking entitlements. In that case, the number plate scan data is deleted within 48 hours. In the event of a negative result, the images are checked by a member of staff from parking operator P1, which carries out parking enforcement on behalf of the City of Amsterdam. Parking company P1 assesses whether there is a special circumstance, such as loading and unloading or a traffic light. In case of doubt, a parking inspector will assess the situation on site. If a vehicle registration number does not have valid parking rights, the details are passed on to the municipal tax authority. They use the RDW database to link the registration number to the owner’s personal details and issue a parking fine (‘additional parking tax assessment’).

In addition to checking for paid parking and enforcing regulations against stopping on the pavement, the scanning vehicle is used to collect data on parking demand and the type of permit holder.