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Springfield preparing to 'boot' parking scofflaws

Posted October 04, 2007 11:00 pm

Sarah Antonacci

The city of Springfield will announce Monday a plan to crack down on parking ticket scofflaws by starting a wheel "boot" program.

"We're going to have a press conference Monday (on radio station WFMB, 1450-AM) to talk about the particulars and how we're going to enforce it," Mayor Tim Davlin said. "I think we're about 99 percent worked out."

The mayor said state law governs the booting of vehicles. No city ordinance is needed to institute the program, though "ultimately we may do an ordinance to codify it," he said.

Boots are metal immobilization devices that attach to a vehicle's tire, making it impossible to drive.

A series of stories in The State Journal-Register over the summer showed that more than 150 people owe the city at least $500 each for parking tickets.

Springfield scofflaws owe more than $900,000 in unpaid parking ticket fines, the paper reported.

City attorney Jenifer Johnson said people who have $500 or more in outstanding parking tickets and who have not made arrangements to pay their fines probably will be those targeted by the program. Scofflaws will be given notice 21 days in advance that their vehicles are eligible to be booted. The cars can be booted as long as they are parked on any public property, she said.

Other details remain to be worked out, she said.

Peoria started a boot program in June; anyone with five or more unpaid parking tickets can be booted. Vehicle owners in Peoria have 48 hours to settle their debt or the city can tow the vehicles.

When Peoria's city council passed the ordinance, the city had nearly 85,000 unpaid parking tickets worth just under $1.1 million. The program seems to be working.

"We advertised that we'd be doing this, and we had people who went immediately to pay the fine," said Ann Ruggles, Peoria Police Department spokeswoman. "As of yesterday, everyone who'd been booted paid up. It's been a lot of money.

"When that big yellow boot goes on, they run out there and pay the fines. It's amazing."

Peoria bought six devices at a cost of about $575 apiece. Davlin said a Springfield public works employee found boots being sold at a store locally as an anti-theft device for less than $100 apiece, and that the city will have five to use.

They're commonly known as "Denver boots," though that probably won't be the brand Springfield will use.

City Treasurer Jim Langfelder, whose office oversees the paying and appeal of parking tickets, but not their issuance, said he learned of the new boot program Thursday. He said he thinks the rules should be spelled out in ordinance form and a process needs to be set up to ensure the wrong vehicles don't get booted.

"You have to have things in writing and act accordingly," he said.

Sarah Antonacci can be reached at (217) 788-1529 or sarah.antonacci@sj-r.com.

The Denver boot was patented in 1953 by Frank Marugg, an inventor, a violinist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra and a good friend to many Denver politicians and police department officials. As such, when the police department needed a solution to a growing parking enforcement problem, the sheriff approached Marugg asking for help, and the two came up with the idea for the clamp.

Source: Wikipedia Web site

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