And Who Should I Call?

 

The BOOTed car parked on Allen Street shown in the picture was one of the first cars, if not the first car, to be BOOTed by HPD early Thursday morning during their very first effort to handle the BOOTing of vehicles without the help of a towing company and with a pair of BOOTs it recently discovered DPW had been hiding for "years and years."  The owner of the car owed a few hundred dollars to the city thanks to 3 overdue tickets as well as one WRONG SIDE TICKET and one $150 BOOT ticket issued along with a BOOT secured to the front wheel and an Immobilization Notice secured to the front door handle with a disposable zip tie.

Notice that nowhere on HPD's new Immobilization Notice does it offer a phone number for the recipient to call to get their boot removed.  Can you imagine a bigger FUCK YOU, JERK/TAX PAYER/RESIDENT than this?  Additionally, nothing is written on the back of the ticket explaining the process to regain one's vehicle, including having to pay the $150 BOOT fee ticket and all overdue tickets to get the BOOT removed.  "Oh, by the way..."  

HPD's true public announcement (rather than their Fakebook "announcement" a few days ago) about the city's plan to begin BOOTing vehicles came about in a rather strange and random fashion during Monday's informal council meeting.  Following HPD's much too brief monthly report, outgoing 5th ward council member Vicky Daskaloudi asked Acting Chief Commissioner Captain David Miller the following question:  "How many parking tickets do you need to have in order to get booted?"

Miller responded, "The parking division, they know that number.  I don't know it off the top of my head because I don't do that."

Daskaloudi:  But it's not like one or two, is it?

Miller:  No.  Yeah, it's somewheres like five or six.  It's usually pretty serious when they're getting to the point where they're booting a car on the street."

First of all, there is no such thing as a "Parking Division" in Hudson.  There is a Parking Bureau, with its new office located in the same building as the police station where Captain Chief Commissioner Miller spends most, if not all, of his workday.  In fact, the tiny Parking Bureau office is located within the HPD station.  But Miller's words are telling -- all parking matters have been taken over by HPD.  What law enforcement?  What crime?

Second, the Parking Bureau HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH PARKING ENFORCEMENT, BOOTS OR BOOTING!  ONLY HPD -- THE DEPARTMENT THAT CAPTAIN CHIEF MILLER IS CURRENTLY IN CHARGE OF -- HANDLES PARKING ENFORCEMENT.  THIS WAS TRUE BEFORE THE PARKING BUREAU MOVED TO UNION STREET AND IT HAS BEEN TRUE SINCE THEY MOVED THERE AS WELL!  TO THIS DAY, NOTHING HAS CHANGED:  POLICE OFFICERS AND PARKING ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WORK FOR HPD, NOT THE PARKING BUREAU OR "PARKING DIVISION."

Strike three:  It takes exactly 3 overdue tickets of at least 45 days to get the BOOT, not " 5 or 6."  This is the way it has always been, and you don't have to be a cop to know it (though it should help!).  For the number one, two and three in command at HPD to get so many facts wrong about parking is more than concerning.  It's frightening.  

When Miller was done spreading misinformation, a uniformed colleague of his standing in the back of the room, Lt. Nick Pierro, raised his hand and was recognized by the council chairman.  Miller looked surprised that Pierro has something to say, as if the two had not spoken before the meeting.  It's a good thing Lt. Pierro showed up (and Vicky asked her question), because he spoke for over two minutes, informing the council of HPD's plans to begin BOOTing vehicles at night without the help of any towing companies, using a pair of BOOTs that "the city purchased years and years ago that are currently at DPW... I checked and they still have them."  He added, "This is going to create revenue for the Parking Bureau because before we weren't getting any of the booting fee.  That all went to the tow company."  This was all likely news to our acting Chief of Police, as it certainly was to all of the council members.

Wouldn't you love to know how many decades "years and years" translates to?  Do you think Rob Perry was even aware that DPW had a pair of BOOTs hidden somewhere at the DPW garage for "years and years," a pair of BOOTs HPD could have been using for years and years to avoid the unpaid ticket fiasco the city has been dealing with for years and years because HPD had no BOOTs of their own but DPW had two they never used for years and years?  

For HPD to charge a $150 boot removal fee to someone with 3 or more overdue parking tickets is obscene.  

Here is HPD's new process (or close to it) for BOOTing and unBOOTing of scofflaw vehicles at night.  An HPD officer on overnight ticket patrol comes across a vehicle that is parked on the wrong side of the street (whether or not the DPW street sweeper is out that morning) and issues it a $15 WRONG SIDE ticket (depending on the street, some tickets are $25).  The officer's ticket machine, having scanned the vehicle registration, also alerts them that the vehicle is BOOTable because it has 3 or more outstanding unpaid previous tickets.  The officer then issues a $150 BOOT ticket and slaps that on the windshield as well.  He or she then removes an orange BOOT from the trunk of their vehicle and secures it to the front driver's side wheel of the vehicle, a task that likely takes a few minutes at most.  After filling out the Immobilization Notice and securing it with a zip tie to the door handle, the officer gets back in their vehicle and continues on into the darkness, looking for other vehicles to ticket that are on the "wrong side" of the street and in the DPW street sweeper's way, whether or not the street sweeper is out sweeping streets that night.  With one more BOOT in the vehicle, luck may strike again in the form of mucho revenue for the Parking Division Bureau.

When the owner of the BOOTed vehicle has paid their fees to the Parking Division Bureau, an officer will drive to the vehicle, remove the BOOT, place it in the trunk or back seat of the vehicle and move on to other pressing critical law enforcement matters.

And for this little amount of effort on HPD's part they charge $150, even to taxpaying residents!  It's not good enough they forced someone to walk or run to the police station to pay a few hundred dollars in overdue tickets so they could get their car back and get to work?  They have to charge another $150 on top of the considerable overdue ticket fees?  And who exactly came up with that $150 amount and did they base it on New York City parking rules?

There really seems to be something amiss at HPD, and it's not just the numerous instances of poor sentence structure they throw our way (perhaps even worse than what HUDseen offers!!!).

"This car has been immobilized rather than towing it away, thus saving time and expense."  First of all, this is poor grammar (mixing tenses).  Second, vehicles are never just towed away when they reach the overdue ticket threshold -- they are always BOOTed first, even by towing companies during the day!  Third, it sounds like HPD is doing the owner a favor by BOOTing their vehicle, doesn't it?  "Saving" whose "time and expense"?  HPD's?  Whether you get your car BOOTed by a towing company or HPD, you're still gonna have to pay $150 to get it unBOOTed!  At least the notice that a tow company puts on your car door will offer a fucking phone number to call and find out what you need to do to get your car back!

"Please obey our traffic and parking regulations."  Thanks for the tip, I'll keep it in mind when I get my car back with someone's help. Stop wasting my time, I need my car now. Who the fuck should I call?  The Police Chief, the Police Commissioner, the Police Captain, the Police Lieutenant or the Police Officer with badge number78?  Or should I call the Parking Division Bureau?