A new app in San Francisco that showed the real-time locations of parking enforcement officers was quickly shut down by city officials – only four hours after it went live.
Riley Walz developed an app called ‘Find My Parking Cops’ – a humorous take on ‘Find My Friends’ – that showed users, in almost real-time, where parking tickets were being given out. The app even ranked officers by the amount of fines they’d collected, with one officer reportedly collecting over $15,000 before the app was shut down.
The project gathered data from San Francisco’s parking ticket system by guessing ticket numbers and pinpointing where violations occurred. This meant people could see tickets being issued in near real-time.
I figured out how the San Francisco parking ticket system works, and now I can see new tickets almost as soon as they’re issued. Because of this, I created a website to help people avoid getting parking tickets – think of it as a way to ‘find the parking cops’ before they find you.
— Riley Walz (@rtwlz) September 23, 2025
The data showed some interesting trends, like one officer writing 12 parking tickets on a single block downtown in just two hours, and another issuing over 60 tickets in the Noe Valley neighborhood on the same day, according to Walz.
App shut down quickly
Just four hours after the app launched, San Francisco’s transportation agency blocked access to its website. “The MTA updated their site, so the app is no longer able to get information,” explained developer Walz to The San Francisco Standard.
Unfortunately, the website I used to get data from was updated very quickly, and now I’m unable to access it. This likely means I can’t continue gathering information.
— Riley Walz (@rtwlz) September 23, 2025
According to SFMTA spokesperson Erica Kato, the decision was made to prioritize worker safety. She explained that parking citations are used to enforce parking rules, which are essential for keeping streets safe and making sure everyone has fair access to limited parking spaces, as reported by the newspaper.
We’re open to innovative technology that helps people park legally. However, it’s also important that our employees can work safely and without interference.
According to Walz, the website was working again by 10pm local time, but it’s unclear how stable it is.
CORRECTION: THE SITE’S BACK UP! GUESS WHO’S BACK, BACK AGAIN
— Riley Walz (@rtwlz) September 24, 2025
Walz, known for previously creating a popular fake New York City steakhouse website, explained that the parking app serves two purposes: it’s a helpful tool for finding parking, and it collects data for future projects. He intends to make this data publicly available in a spreadsheet, allowing residents to see where parking tickets are most often issued.
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2025-09-24 12:49