Finance Department to use electronic boot on cars

FORT GREENE (WABC) -- Stack up enough unpaid parking tickets and expect the city to literally give you the boot.

Starting Monday, cars with $350 worth of past-due parking tickets that are more than 3 months old, will get an electronic boot instead of the traditional tow.

"This is a small group of people who believe they are above the law. And they don't have to do what all these New Yorkers do and we're going to find you," said Commissioner of NYC Department of Finance David Frankel.

Frankel says electronic boots started Monday in Brooklyn and will eventually be citywide. They are already being used in Chicago, New Orleans and Seattle.

Motorists who ignore parking tickets, loss in court, or those who don't follow through on a payment agreement could get locked in place. They can call a toll-free number, pay tickets and fees by debit or credit card, and then get a code to get it off.

The driver is then responsible for dropping the boot off at a collection center.

Roy Barditch guarantees it won't work.

"What do you do with the boot when you're finished? An angry person will put it through somebody else's windshields," Barditch says.

On the other hand, Harold Alvarez believes it will save the city and drivers time and money.

"It's better than the tow-away because you know the people will pay more that way, but if they put the thing there, a lot of people don't have to pay the $200 to get your car out," said Alvarez.

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