LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - If you have three or more unpaid parking tickets, you might stand a chance to have your car booted on Metro Louisville streets. That's thanks to new rules in effect that started Monday, aimed at collecting fines from habitual offenders.
These boots definitely weren't made for walking. But, new rules mean parking authority crews are booting more vehicles.
"This is an attempt to encourage people that have ignored the laws and the meters in the past to pay at the meters," said Parking Authority of the River City Assistant Director, Tiffany Smith.
The Louisville Metro Council approved the change designed to put money back into general funds.
"We have about $3 million of delinquent parking fines right now," said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. "The city's facing serious financial challenges. So, we are collecting past due fees."
In the past, to get the boot you had to have two outstanding violations and be parked illegally.
"Now, the meter could be paid, but if you have 3 or more outstanding citations, you are boot eligible," said Smith. "It's not as if it's a surprise at this point. At the time that you're boot eligible, you've received lots of notices. At a minimum, six letters would've come to your house."
"Well, that's good because I think that if you do break the law, as minor as it may be, it is a law," said Tammy Reinhardt, of Louisville. "And, you've got to pay up."
Crews boot on average 7-10 vehicles a day. That's a number crews expect to double with the new rules in place. They're finding vehicles with a "boot van." It uses cameras and a computer to scan license plates and enter them into a database to find unpaid tickets.
"It's like a camera that's on top of a police vehicle and it just rotates around and it can identify license plates that are outstanding," said Smith.
Shawn Wall is a parking enforcement officer with Republic Parking. He's one of the people you'll see in the "boot van" as it drives around the city looking for vehicles that have unpaid parking tickets.
"If you do have outstanding citations, you may want to pay them," Wall recommended.
Click here to see if you have any outstanding parking tickets or want if you want to pay online.
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