Change afoot frees booted drivers

Device can be unlocked by motorist after paying fines with credit card by phone

This is how Jeffrey Davis reacted yesterday moments after a team of Baltimore parking agents slapped a shiny yellow boot on the left front wheel of his Ford Probe:

"I don't know why I got a boot!"

And then: "This doesn't make no sense!"

Finally: "What else will go wrong?"

What Davis did not notice (or appreciate) at first was that the metal lock on his wheel was a new device that gives him the option of removing it himself after paying parking tickets with a credit card over the telephone.

It's a process that is supposed to take minutes instead of hours - or even days, for drivers who were unlucky enough to get locked before a public holiday.

In the past, Davis would have had to pay his fines in person at a downtown government building and then wait for a city worker to arrive with a key and remove the device.

Convenience comes at a cost. It used to be that drivers had to pay outstanding parking tickets plus a $24 fee to remove the lock. All of that money went to city coffers. Now the city receives the unpaid parking fines, but the boot fee has been increased to $100 and goes to Paylock, a New Jersey-based company which has provided the SmartBoot service in Baltimore since mid-October.

City transportation department chief Alfred H. Foxx said the new arrangement will be a financial plus.

Even though the city no longer gets boot-removal money, parking enforcers will have more time to track down scofflaws - generating more revenue.

"It came out that it was a pretty good deal for us," Foxx said. "Particularly when you look at the customer service aspect. We're trying to make our operation a little more efficient and customer-friendly."

The extra time will help the city whittle away at the $68 million worth of outstanding unpaid parking tickets that have been issued in the city.

The system appears to be growing in popularity. One Virginia city uses the system on residents with unpaid property taxes. Officials in Prince George's County have used the self-removing boots since January and have been pleased with them.

In Prince George's, scofflaws pay a $100 boot fee. And the county government also paid the company 14 percent of ticket revenues collected for the first six months, and now pays 10 percent - a cut that Baltimore is not handing over.

Baltimore has leased 120 of the boots, and as of yesterday morning, officers had installed them 404 times, collecting $97,911 in unpaid fines. No figures were available from a comparable period last year.