Twitter dobs in Rome's parking offenders

Rome's new police chief is using social media to target bad drivers who park illegally in the Italian city. Picture /Getty Images

Rome is notorious for its maddening traffic and for the inventive tactics motorists adopt to get around parking laws, but life is getting harder for rule breakers in the Italian capital - thanks to Twitter.

Newly appointed City Police Commander Raffaele Clemente has asked citizens to use the micro-blogging website to flag illegally parked cars and other violations.

Clemente has received nearly 3700 tweets that resulted in almost 1000 on-the-spot checks and 588 traffic fines, says La Republica newspaper.

Clemente checks up on the progress in regular Twitter postings.

The commander also uses his Twitter profile to debate traffic and public decorum issues with his 4600 followers.

Roma Fa Schifo (Rome is disgusting), an online protest group that campaigns for authorities to adopt a tougher law enforcement approach, has applauded the commander.

Opposition politicians and Ospol, a police trade union, say citizens are unfairly being asked to do the job of public officials, and claiming that denouncing traffic violations through social media breaches privacy laws.

-AAP