Boot to reduce parking violations

By Luis Jiménez
Summer Reporter

The Purdue Parking Facilities Office and the Purdue Police Department on Aug. 1 will be expanding the use of the Denver Boot — a device that's proven successful in discouraging repeated parking offenders from fleeing.

The boot, which since last fall has been clamping and locking around parking offenders' wheels with its metal arms, is used when it's evident that a driver has failed to pay at least three parking tickets. It's also used when a driver displays a lost, stolen or counterfeited parking permit.

Mike Jasper, parking facilities manager, said the boot proves successful when dealing with people who neglect paying fines, as violators have only 72 hours to pay their previous unpaid parking fines. "As a manager, I love to see someone, in matter of hours, taking care of its business," he said. "It's been really successful."

Before the arrival of the boot to campus, violators who often "overlooked" paying their fines had an orange sticker adhered to their vehicle reminding the violator that it could be towed. But oftentimes, the only inconvenience it caused to violators was to have to wash the sticker glue from their windows, instead of having to pay a $25 fee that is assessed for taking the boot off. The catch, however, is that to get the boot off, violators also have to pay the fines they previously owed, plus their respective late fees.

"We were basically being nice," said Jasper. "(People) forget that every time they park illegally, they are inconveniencing someone else. It's a total disregard of the policies and statutes."

Although Purdue officials are satisfied with the boot's success, some students such as Devin Pohl, a Purdue graduate and Lafayette resident, objected the use of the boot and qualified it as an ineffective tool. Pohl, who had his car "clamped" by Lafayette parking authorities rather than by Purdue traffic officers, said the use of the boot is unfair and does nothing to address the high demand of parking around campus. "Even with (the boot), they will still have problems with parking," he said. "They should provide more parking space instead of this."

Pohl said some students might not pay their tickets because they feel that they were "unlawfully" fined, meaning that they had no other choice but to park illegally.

Although the inconvenience of being "clamped" and having to pay a $25 fee may seem a major annoyance, it is less than what violators would have to pay if their vehicle was towed. Ron Fosnaugh, captain of special services at the Purdue Police Department, said using the boot expedites the whole process of normalizing their unpaid ticket situation. He also said if violators' vehicles get towed, they would have to pay a $70 tow fee, an impound lot storage fee and the unpaid tickets.

However, if drivers' vehicles are immobilized because they are using lost, stolen, altered or counterfeited permits, they could face a $150 illegal permit fine in addition to the removal-of-the-boot fee.

Fosnaugh said if someone is caught with an illegal permit and it's not a repeated offender, the criminal charge might be waived. Jasper said this is because there is an interest on behalf of the parking facilities office to retrieve those permits.

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