`Denver boot' latches on in the suburbs

It's an ominous sight to parking scofflaws in Chicago, and nowthe "Denver boot" may be coming to a suburb near you.

Municipalities around the Chicago area are turning to thewheel-locking device to get chronic violators to pay their parkingtickets.

"We have over $1 million in delinquent parking tickets andneeded to do something," said Dolton Mayor William Shaw, whosecommunity recently passed an ordinance allowing the device. "We havepeople who just refuse to pay . . . the boot should help."Indeed, the 11-gauge steel apparatuses could pop up as soon asnext month. A half-dozen arrived in Dolton last week and villageleaders are finalizing details on how and when to use them.The boot was born in 1946, the invention of the late FrankNarugg.Nine years later, Denver became the first city in the UnitedStates to fight ticket scofflaws with the boot.Chicago began using the boot - about 15 inches in diameter andweighing 26 pounds - in the mid-1980s to deal with an escalatingparking violation problem. City crews boot about 25,000 cars a yearin an effort to collect more than $50 million in delinquent fines.Suburbs that have turned to the boot for relief say it paysdividends."We had plenty of people who refused to buy a vehicle tag andrather than just collecting a fee (for each ticket) from thesepeople, the boot has helped get them into compliance," said KevinClose, village manager of west suburban Lyons. "We had one personwho had $5,000 in outstanding parking violations."Close said the village started using the boot about a year and ahalf ago and officials said its two boots are constantly in use.Opponents say they fear the use of the boot will turn into apolitical tool or be applied selectively.However, communities allowed to boot said the positives faroutweigh the negatives. The threat of using the device can sometimesbe enough to get compliance.