This is evident from written answers to ask from municipal councilor Wout Deterink (VVD) to traffic councilor Melanie van der Horst (D66).
Deterink submitted the questions afterward research The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) had shown that municipalities may issue 500,000 incorrect fines every year. According to the research, this may have to do with the AI software used in scan cars.
A total of 731,100 parking tickets were issued in Amsterdam last year. An objection was subsequently filed against 129,700 of those fines and in 82,900 cases the objection was declared well-founded.
‘Often citizen’s mistake’
But according to Van der Horst, not all waived fines are reversed due to an error by the municipality. “In 81 percent of the objections granted, there was an error by the citizen that we turned a blind eye to,” the councilor writes.
According to a fact sheet published by the municipality in April, 38 percent of fines are waived due to an ‘understandable mistake’ by a motorist. Parking just outside the permit area, or paying for a permit late once, is seen as an understandable mistake. In 39 percent of the waived fines, someone entered the wrong license plate number.
According to the municipality, 19 percent of the waived fines can be attributed to an error by the municipality. This concerns, for example, an error when registering or consulting a parking right for a license plate. Something may also have gone wrong when ‘assessing parking behavior or the place where the car is parked.’