The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Nick McCann

Lisa Levy stood next to her recently booted car Monday afternoon. She was on her cell phone paying off more than $1,000 worth of parking tickets. She spoke with an employee of Paylock, the company that rents parking boots to the Syracuse Police Department.

"I probably won't be able to pay my rent this month," said Levy, a graduate fellow in English.

Levy is the owner of one of 30 cars at that have been booted this week, as officers from the SPD made their first trip up the Hill.

"You want to feel bad for her," said Sgt. Nick Kleist of the Syracuse Police Department. "But, we've given them so much time. She could've made other arrangements (to pay the fines.)"

With 40 boots in the back of their hand-me-down van, Kleist and Officer David Mathewson drove slowly through the streets surrounding Syracuse University's campus.

The newly revamped van is equipped with two high-speed cameras mounted on the roof aimed at the bumper level of passing cars. The cameras photograph and scan the plates of each parked vehicle, alternating sides of the street when necessary. If the computer gets a hit, a small siren rings on the dashboard computer to alert the officers that a bootable vehicle has been found.

While Kleist ran the plate number of the vehicle, Mathewson removed one of the bright yellow, lightweight boots from the back of the van. He affixed a warning sticker that reads, "CAUTION: Do not attempt to move this vehicle," to the front window. He then attached a boot to the front, curbside wheel of the car.

"No one should get in their car and drive away," Mathewson said, motioning to the sticker and second notice placed under the front windshield wiper blade.

He only voiced one complaint as he attached a boot to a car on University Avenue.

"I need to go to the dollar store and get some of those knee pads for gardening," he said, as the kneeling on the wet ground dirtied his knees.

Since the operation started Jan. 22 throughout the rest of the city, 70 cars have been booted.

The mayor decided to give the students an extra week to pay off their fines after returning from winter break, which explains the SPD's delayed arrival to campus, Lieutenant Joe Sweeny, head officer of the operation, said.

The SPD posted warning notices on the windows of cars in danger of booting last week in the university area, he said.

A vehicle is considered bootable and will trigger the scanner 90 days after a third parking ticket has been given. If there are fines in excess of $750, the vehicle is automatically towed.

When an owner lets fines accumulate, there is a good chance the owner will either abandon the car or upon seeing the boot, try to break it off, Sweeny said.

"We don't want someone coming out here with a sledgehammer," he said.

Paylock implemented the towing policy to ensure that the boots are returned. A vehicle will also be towed if the owner has not paid his or her fines within 24 hours of the booting.

In addition to the cumulative fines from their unpaid parking tickets, the owner must pay an additional $50 fine for the boot.

The owner has the option to call Paylock and pay by credit card, which will automatically release the boot, or the owner can pay cash at the Parking Violations Bureau and then wait for an officer to remove the device.

If the boot is not returned to the Department of Public Safety within 24 hours, a $25 fine per day is charged to the owner's credit card until a maximum of $250 is reached.

Paylock collects the $50 booting fee in addition to 15 percent of the overall fines, Sweeny said. The remainder of the fine is returned to the city.

That small percentage is more substantial when fines are well above the $750 boot limit. Sweeny knows of some Syracuse residents who owe as much as $16,000 in unpaid tickets.

"Are we specifically looking for them? No," he said. "Do we know where they are parking? Well, yes."

Parking checkers travel daily throughout the city with handheld machines. Their databases are updated each morning so if a new ticket is written to a serial offender, the checker can call and notify the boot van.

"We'll get them sooner or later," Sweeny said. "That's the beauty of this."

Syracuse residents are not considering this to be a hollow threat. More than $200,000 in overdue fines has been paid since Jan. 1. A business owner on Marshall Street owes the city "thousands," and has only recently signed a payment plan, Sweeny said.

The Parking Violations Bureau offers payment plans to people who can't pay off their fines in one lump sum. As long as the owners make their monthly payment, their vehicle is removed from the booting list.

Sweeny has already seen results from the booting threats and the enforcement of other parking laws on the SU campus.

Instead of the usual parking issues on a game day at SU, now "you could shoot a gun down there, and you wouldn't hit a thing," Sweeney said, pointing at Ackerman Avenue.

"People need to start thinking, 'I have to walk a block farther, but at least my car will be there,'" he said.

Their first day booting downtown, officers from the SPD were greeted with cheers from local patrons. "They're sick of that one guy who parks illegally every day," Mathewson said.

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