Video: Big Brother? Morristown police say their new ticketing cameras will mean safer streets

Starting on Oct. 1, 2026, motorists who visit downtown Morristown may start finding surprises in their mailboxes: $55 parking tickets, initiated by robotic cameras planted along South Street.

They’re called SafetySticks. We wrote about this 90-day pilot project recently. Here is more, in a video interview with Police Chief Darnell Richardson and Public Safety Director Michael Corcoran Jr.

They said these cameras, which look like periscopes, are meant to stop people from using no-parking zones, blocking crosswalks and fire hydrants. As our video cameras rolled, cars and delivery trucks did just that, right behind us.

Video: SafetySticks in Morristown

Eleven of these SafetySticks have been strategically placed along South Street sidewalks between Pine Street and Community Place. (Two that were vandalized will be replaced, Corcoran said.)

These solar-powered bollards use radar to detect illegally parked vehicles, which they photograph.

The images are transmitted to the police bureau, for review by Class II Special Officers who will decide whether to send tickets by mail, Richardson said.

What about deliveries, or parents parking momentarily, say, to fetch their kids or a pizza?

“Should there be a grace period? Not sure,” the chief said.

“It’s a violation…if I was the officer there (in person), I’d write the summons,” he said.

Whether more are deployed around town will be determined after the pilot program ends in December, Corcoran said.

Some civil liberties groups are wary of such technology as another encroachment on Americans’ privacy. Corcoran said these particular devices have a narrow purpose.

“The intent of this is not Big Brother or surveillance,” he said. “It’s public safety. SafetySticks were specifically put in places where there’s public concerns — here at a corner where visibility is impacted, crosswalks, and other areas where pedestrian safety could be impacted.

“As far as sharing that information, we’re not sharing that information with anyone. We’re not surveilling anyone,” Corcoran said.

A spokesman for Municipal Parking Services, vendor of SafetySticks, told Morristown Green:

“MPS is not permitted to share Morristown’s SafetyStick data with third parties without the written consent of the Town of Morristown… The SafetyStick is not a broad surveillance system. It is a parking-enforcement and public-safety tool installed at a specific location where parking is already prohibited or restricted.”

The Austin, Texas-based company claims the devices reduce illegal parking by up to 95 percent.

Christina Previte of Morristown, who was enjoying the sunshine with her dog outside a South Street café earlier this week, said she suspected the sticks were more about revenue than safety.

“But I have no problem with that,” she said. “We need revenue, right? If it deters people from parking in front of fire hydrants or too close to the end of the street, we all know we’re not supposed to do that, right?”

She added she hopes the technology frees up police for more urgent matters, minimizes chances for favoritism from cops-on-the-beat ticketing, and allows exceptions for emergency parking.

Managers of South Street restaurants that regularly receive deliveries from no-parking zones declined to comment. One deliveryman, parked in a yellow striped zone to unload a restaurant shipment, seemed unconcerned about robo-ticketing.

“Deliveries are going to happen either way,” he said

Correspondent Andrew Dutton contributed to this report.