Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - There are thousands of people in Syracuse with outstanding parking tickets whose car could be booted any day.
Syracuse officials are looking at a new way to collect ticket revenue from people who aren’t paying up. And they’re considering turning to a private company rather than using police resources.
It would mean you have better chance of getting booted.
Syracuse Police officer use a special van to find cars for booting several hours a day.
There are a lot of outstanding tickets, but it takes three outstanding tickets to be eligible for a boot.
Though many may now be out of state or difficult to find, police are able to find plenty.
According to the city’s database, there are nearly 20,000 cars that need to be booted – which is $7.9 million worth of tickets.
With the current system, those cars can be hard to find.
That's why city officials are looking to have a private booting company take over.
“Currently the police department is doing it when they have time to do it, and we really want to make it a more permanent system,” said Syracuse Director of Administration Beth Rougeux.
The company Paylock already supplies the equipment to the police department.
With a new agreement, they would take over the booting process too. They'd be paid a portion of what they collect, and be out on the streets 40 hours a week.
“That gets the message out anyway that we're serious about this - we're serious about collecting our tickets - people should park where they're supposed to and if they happen to get a ticket they should pay it promptly,” Rougeux said.
Syracuse officials will have a meeting discuss the new booting approach on March 13 at 11 a.m.
