Boots are back this fall on city streets — and they’re found more and more on the wheels of vehicles belonging to scofflaw motorists.
It’s hard not to notice them — they’re dressed up in classic warning colors like orange and white, and are accessorized with windshield notices from city marshals that say: “WARNING! Moving this vehicle will result in serious damage to the vehicle.”
The timing of their appearance isn’t a matter of fashion as much as one of the calendar by which the city has resumed its program of ticketing, booting and towing cars that break traffic and parking rules.
As COVID-19 hammered the five boroughs in March 2020, the city Department of Finance — which is in charge of gathering money from vehicle owners with outstanding parking and camera violations — suspended its vehicle boot program.
In February 2021, almost a year after the pandemic forced people inside and businesses closed, the Department of Finance resumed assessing penalties and booting for speeding and red-light camera violations “due to their direct impact on public safety,” the agency said.
Then in March 2022, as the health crisis ended its second year, the DOF sent out warning letters to drivers with outstanding tickets issued over the previous two years, indicating the agency would resume booting cars.
The daunting letters generated more than $50 million in ticket revenue for the city, a DOF spokesperson said.
But not everyone paid up.
So the agency sent a final notice in July cautioning motorists to pay their tickets or enter judgment status — a legal step in which your debt, including penalties and interest, could be sent to a collection agency and the city could seize your assets.
This second letter made the city another $30 million, said a Finance Department spokesperson.
But still not everyone paid up.
So when August rolled around, $310 million worth of pandemic-issued violations were entered into judgment status, resulting in an uptick of enforcement and booted vehicles, the agency said.
Motorists with more than $350 in tickets risk seeing their vehicles booted or towed, according to the department’s website.
Just to remove a boot, a driver can expect to pay at least $220 in fees on top of fines and interest, according to the Finance Department’s website.
The department says removing the boot is easy: Call a phone number given on the windshield notice and pay your fine by giving the operator a credit card number.
When you’re all paid up, the operator will give you a release code that you enter into a keypad on the boot. You have 24 hours to return the boot to a site listed on the Finance Department website. If you’re late, you’ll pay another fee of $25 per day.
An Upper West Side driver stuck with a boot on her described the practice as a “cash grab.”
“It doesn’t feel like a coincidence they’re booting cars as summer ends and more drivers are back in the city,” Rina Levin, 46, said. “The city needs money, so they go after cars. It’s a pattern of behavior.”
“It doesn’t take much to rack up $350 in tickets,” Levin said. “The city knows that.”
