(license plate reader begins at 2:30)

Cities across America are installing FREE smart parking meters equipped with license plate license plate readers (LPR).

A company called Municipal Parking Service (MPS) has been installing FREE camera equipped parking meters in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida and Canada.

Are MPS's parking meters really free?

The answer is yes, sort of.

According to an article in the Lowell Sun, it appears MPS offers cities a number of smart parking meters for a 'free' pilot program and then charges them if they decide to use their system.

Why would MPS offer cities free smart parking meters?

According to MPS's video, the [third] reason cities should use their meters, is so motorists can pay a 'small fee' instead of a larger parking fine if they over-stayed a parking meters time limit.

And why would they do that you ask?

Because cities can double their existing revenue, of course.

MPS also charges motorists a 15 cent fee to use their 'Sentry Mobile Consumer' app to pay for parking.

At approximately 4:00 minutes into the above video, MPS reveals that their 'Sentry' parking meters can be used to record criminals or suspicious people. Asking people and I quote, "wouldn't it be nice to have a VIRTUAL POLICE OFFICER every forty feet on your sidewalks?"

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Fund, America has the "highest figure ever" of  900,000 police officers.

With nearly one million police officers in America, it would not be nice to have a 'virtual police officer' every forty feet.

Unfortunately smart parking meters do much more than read license plates.

 Smart parking meters are extremely invasive

Smart parking meters spy on everyone's payment history. Providing police with more information than 'you could possibly imagine'.

MPS's 'SentryView' Dashboard page, boasts that their real-time parking meters “gives the staff at your Municipality or organization an unprecedented view into your parking and payment related activity. Even just a quick login to your main SentryView dashboard each day will provide you with more information than you can possibly ever obtain from other solutions.” (Click here to find out more about their real-time surveillance.)

And if that wasn't creepy enough, MPS's 'Public Safety' page, reveals that law enforcement has real-time access to their parking meters.

"Our meters can be plumbed into your security infrastructure and e911 network. Effectively turning every single parking meter into a way for a pedestrian to request emergency assistance!"

How does the public benefit from having parking meters connected to police departments other than expanding their surveillance?