Arlington Heights will delay implementing 'boot'

A technical oversight is forcing Arlington Heights police to delay placing "boots" on vehicles that have amassed lots of parking tickets, which they had intended to start Monday.

Instead of "booting," police will be sending the worst scofflaws a list of all their outstanding citations. They have to be notified 21 days before the vehicles can be booted, Capt. Nicholas Pecora said.

Scofflaws also will get notices that after 45 days the village will ask the Illinois Secretary of State to suspend their drivers licenses. A village ordinance that goes into effect Saturday provides that penalty for owners of vehicles with at least 10 unpaid tickets.

Because lists of citations were not included, the village's notice of a 30-day amnesty period, which was sent to 900 people believed to be the worst offenders, was not adequate, said Pecora.

The new notices will be staggered because the department owns only six vehicle immobilization devices. The first 100 letters will be mailed Monday to those believed to have the most violations, and enforcement will start 21 days later.

"Vehicle immobilization device" is the generic name for the mechanism. The devices came to be known as "boots" for short after the Denver Boot, which is the best known maker of VIDs.

The person in Arlington Heights with the most tickets did not take advantage of the recent amnesty offered by the village, said Pecora, but several others in the top 10 did.

The leading scofflaw is a local resident with 761 unresolved citations and $43,753.25 in total fines due, Pecora said, adding the most recent citation was issued Tuesday.

The village collected $70,000 from scofflaws during the amnesty - when they offered to settle outstanding tickets at a discount - and expect to get more from a collection agency. Pecora does not have figures on the total number of people who took advantage of the amnesty.

Some of the unpaid tickets date back as far as 1992. As well, fully one-third of the 900 amnesty letters came back as undeliverable, so the police department had to do more research to find the people.

Vehicle owners owe $48 for each ticket, and people who pay now will not get the benefit of the amnesty rate, which was $35. However, those who were hardest to find are still within the 30-day amnesty period because letters to them went out later.

Any vehicle with five or more unpaid tickets could get "booted." As well, after 10 or more tickets and 45 days' notice the vehicle owner could lose his or her Illinois drivers license.

Arlington Heights also plans to set up a twice-monthly administrative appeal hearing process for people who want to protest parking tickets, some animal violations like dogs running at large, and failing to wear seat belts.

However, this will be in effect only for tickets issued beginning Saturday.