A mother, three children and an absolute priority: getting home as soon as possible. We are talking about Heather, a mom who on September 10 received a message on her phone that absolutely no one ever wants to receive.
“Mom, there is a shooter at the school.”
With her heart stopped and fear in her legs, she started running, the streets were blocked by the police, so she parked in a private lot on Plettner Lane and continued on foot until she reached Evergreen High School where her children were.
Her three children were fine, thank God. But a few days later, a surprise arrived, a 92 dollar fine because she had not paid for the private parking on Plettner Lane.
“At that moment I was not thinking about scanning a QR code or paying. I just wanted to get to my children.”
Heather appealed. She explained everything. Three days later they rejected the request as if she had left the car there for fun.
The response to her request offered her a revised notice amount of 72 dollars if she paid within the next 10 days.
“It was a communication error.”
When the story exploded in the media, John Conway, cofounder of the company that manages the parking, PRRS, acknowledged that they had handled it terribly. Lack of empathy everywhere, but he said they would review the process (and apparently we should thank him for that…)
PRRS operates many of the private parking lots in Evergreen, they are automatic systems, cameras, all digitized. And of course, the system does not understand emergencies, scared children or mothers running, but once an appeal of that magnitude arrives, the least that could happen is that a human person (supposedly with empathy installed) would respond.
Thanks to public pressure, the fine was cancelled, but Heather did not find out until the end of the month.
Merchants at the limit
The problem is even bigger, the downtown area of Evergreen is small and charming, but many merchants and neighbors complain that parking is impossible if you do not fall into one of these private parking “traps”, and fewer and fewer people go to the town center.
The real estate companies that own the lots say it is to maintain order, but the neighbors believe it is simply one more business that ends up scaring users away out of fear of fines…
Machines forget empathy
Automating cannot mean dehumanizing, this case reflects something bigger, and it is that when we let technology make all the decisions without a person reviewing it, these things happen.
And yes, of course we understand that all rules exist to be followed, but not everything is black or white, and certainly, running toward a school during an active shooting needs more compassion than fines.
“That day I was not an offender. I was a mother.”
The debate continues
Many neighbors have exploded after this incident, who controls these systems? Yes, PRRS operates from afar, but the daily life of the community and the property owners is another one. Many demand empathy before revenue collection, and above all, a bit of common sense. Not everything can be automated, and even less in situations like the one Heather experienced, many forget that behind every license plate there is a person, with a story, with their own problems…