Boots kick 3,493 drivers
PARKING | City scrambles to rake in cash by cracking down for 2 unpaid tickets
Scrounging for cash to erase a threatened $300 million year-end shortfall, Chicago is going after motorists with two unpaid tickets older than one year with a vengeance -- by mailing 183,293 seizure notices and booting 3,493 vehicles.
The City Council's controversial decision to drop the threshold for applying the Denver boot for the first time in seven years -- from three-unpaid tickets to two -- has touched off a booting blitz.
(John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
On April 22, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that 65,318 seizure notices had been mailed and 415 vehicles had been booted.
In the three months since that first progress report, the two-ticket booting has increased nearly eight-fold -- to 3,493 vehicles. And the number of seizure notices has nearly tripled -- to 183,293.
Seizure notices give parking tickets scofflaws 21 days to request a hearing. Only after those hearings rights have expired can the Denver boot be applied.
Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh said the hunt for motorists with two unpaid tickets older than one year has been aided by a $1.5 million technology upgrade. In 2008, 26 city vans were equipped with cameras, computers and software capable of scanning 900 license plates per hour and checking them against the list of boot-eligible motorists.
Until then, boot crews were hampered in the hunt for scofflaws by the need to manually enter license plates into hand-held computers.
"It obviously is an improvement when you have cameras identifying the plates vs. someone manually entering the plates. It does improve productivity and the number of plates that can be read," Walsh said.
Asked whether the booting frenzy was tied to the city's budget troubles, Walsh said, "We're the collection arm of the city. We have a responsibility to maximize collections. That's essentially what we're doing. It's unfair to people who do pay their tickets that there are people who don't."
The booting bonanza comes at a time when the number of parking tickets issued by the city is continuing its steady decline.
Through June 30, the city had issued 1.38 million tickets, roughly 18,000 fewer than it did during the same period last year.
Parking enforcement aides were apparently unable to pick up the slack from Chicago Police officers, whose ticket-writing dropped by nearly 10 percent last year.
Earlier this year, a pair of South Side aldermen proposed that private security guards patrolling three Far South Side commercial strips be empowered to write tickets -- for everything from parking and moving violations to loitering, littering and graffiti -- under a groundbreaking plan that faces strong resistance from rank-and-file Chicago Police officers.
On Tuesday, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) disclosed that he is amending his rent-a-cop ordinance to make it citywide at the direction of the city's Law Department.
"We're not backing off at all. We're just having to re-group and make sure that what we implement is effective for the entire city and not just a particular ward. This cannot be ward-specific," Beale said.
Beale said he's well aware that a citywide ordinance would compound the resistance from the Fraternal Order of Police. The union has already branded the more narrow ordinance a dangerous idea that the union would "fight all the way."
But, the alderman said, "meter maids have the right to write tickets. They're not sworn officers. Why not give a private firm [patrolling] a business district the ability to [do the same]. That's one of the things we're missing. We're trying to get some added help and resources to aid and assist the Police Department. If we can take that piece away from them, then they can go out and fight bigger crimes."
He added, "We haven't even gotten to the middle of summer and we're having shootings every weekend. If we can get police to concentrate on fighting the real crime and not worry about the minute things, it's a win-win for everybody."