Some time ago I talked to a Moscow taxi driver. First we discussed Moscow traffic jams (well, this is an obligatory topic of any conversation in Moscow). Then I asked how they put things in order with parking cars on the roadside. So, he told me that the City Hall has signed a contract with private companies that record parking violations around the city and send them to the traffic police. He says that unnoticeable cars or motorcycles silently drive up to an incorrectly parked car, take a photo, put a parking ticket under the windscreen wiper and leave.
They make it quietly, calmly, without scandals. Nothing personal, just business. The income of these companies depends on the amount of fines imposed on violators. And the fear of getting a claim from motorists for unlawful fines prevents the abuse of their power. That’s how private agents work in the service of state tax collectors. Without them, a division of traffic police would not be enough for the whole of Moscow. And then, you see, the state apparatus does not swell, the number of policemen is the same, and the work moves much faster and better.
That’s because private companies are interested in profits, that is, in fines. And the state doesn’t need to monitor the inspectors, so that they didn’t make deals with the violators. Now this is the problem of heads of private companies.
In general, I do not know whether the taxi driver told me the truth (and I do trust the taxi drivers more than… well, for example, the Chairman of the National Bank), but I liked the idea.
However, even if the taxi driver was wrong in some way, I think the akimat of Almaty should take this idea into service.
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