Rose Garden Resident

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Anonymous 'spotters' keep San Jose streets clear of abandoned vehicles

By Melissa Fall

San Jose's Vehicle Spotters Program went citywide in March 2004 and shows no signs of putting on the brakes any time soon.

What originally began as a four-participant pilot has quickly grown into a citywide phenomenon.

Officials from each council district were scheduled to participate in training sessions by the end of 2006 that would enable them to receive and sign-up local volunteers who want to become vehicle spotters.

The problems that sparked the Vehicle Spotters Program were simple ones of time and space. Many San Jose neighborhoods are made up of single-family homes, multi-family homes and apartments built during an era when families had fewer vehicles and fewer people sharing living quarters. Today most of those residents have cars.

When the pilot program began in 2003 through the city of San Jose's code enforcement division, times had changed.

"There were a lot of abandoned cars," says former councilwoman Linda LeZotte, who helped launch the program, "and they were there for weeks on end. The street sweepers couldn't get past them."

In legal terms, a vehicle cannot remain on a street in the same location for more than 72 hours without moving. However, for residents, those 72 hours stretched into weeks or months without change.

The program's solution involves neighborhood residents.

Anonymous neighborhood volunteers throughout San Jose are given a code number. If a car appears to be abandoned on their street, they call San Jose's Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Office hotline and request a red tag. They don't give their names, just their code number.

The owner of the offending vehicle is contacted; 72 hours later, the code enforcement office calls the spotter back to see if the car has moved. If it has not, the car is towed. Volunteers have to go through training, and code enforcement officials have to trust the volunteers.

"It is a very efficient way to take existing resources and provide enhanced resources," says Jamie Matthews, a code enforcement administrator who helped start the program with LeZotte.

The solution seems to be a popular one. The program has expanded since its first citywide training session on March 25, 2004. Since then, four additional training sessions have been held, most recently in September 2005. According to planning, building and code enforcement office statistics, the four spotters have become 75, and they've logged 1,078 red tag requests. Of those vehicle requests, 86 cars were towed while 992 were voluntarily removed.

Legislation passed after the initial implementation of the spotters program now mandates those voluntary moves entail a position change of more than 2 inches.

The actual number of residents involved in the program in Almaden Valley is unavailable because the names and neighborhoods of volunteers are protected.

Matthews says the program has cut costs by 50 percent, so the city can enhance resources and services overall.

The 24-hour vehicle abatement hotline to call and report an abandoned vehicle is 408. 277.5305. Residents do not have to be part of the Vehicle Spotters Program to call this number.