Car-Mounted Cameras to Target Delinquent Taxpayers in Suffolk, Va.

Car-mounted license plate readers

April 8, 2010 By Russell Nichols

If you owe personal property taxes to Suffolk, Va., watch where you park your car because you might lose it.

Pushing a proposal aimed to track delinquent taxpayers, Suffolk City Treasurer Ron Williams wants to deploy car-mounted cameras to scan license plates on parked vehicles and seize the ones whose owners are in the red. In total, residents owe about $1.4 million in personal property taxes from the past two years, Williams said, and he plans to get some of that money back one tow at a time.

"Our primary objective is to get the taxes paid," he said.

The measure, which must be approved by the City Council, should go to vote in May. In the meantime, Williams is finalizing a contract Virginia Auction Company Inc., which would run the tax collecting program. The city wouldn't have to pay a dime.

"In order to maximize the return on taxpayer dollars," Williams said, "we will not have to make any capital investment."

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Comments

sandra deel | Commented September 1, 2012

I was just wondering if suffolk is the only city thats doing this? how about portsmouth, norfolk, vabeach,chesapeake etc?

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