Downtown Mobile Parking Regulations

Dec 13th, 2004

The City of Mobile is going to get tough on people who refuse to pay their parking tickets. Mayor Mike Dow and Mobile Police Deputy Chief Lester Hargrove announced that with recent changes in the city's parking enforcement agreement, the city will use a device called a "boot" to force people to pay up - or lose the use of their vehicles.

Mobile's City Council has amended its two year old contract with Central Parking, a company hired to regulate and enforce parking regulations in downtown Mobile. Now, retired Mobile Police Officers will enforce parking, while Central Parking will continue processing tickets, collections, ticket settlement and meter maintenance. Under the new plan, when an officer tickets a vehicle, if records show the vehicle has a high number of unpaid tickets, the disabling "boot" device will be attached to the vehicle, and the vehicle will be towed. Before the owner can claim the vehicle, all costs including tickets, fines and towing must be paid in full.

To give people with outstanding tickets an incentive to pay their fines, the city is offering an amnesty period. The $10.00 fee added to all overdue tickets will be waived on tickets written from January 1, 2004 through December 13, 2004 if they are paid by January 31, 2005. After that, overdue accounts will be turned over to a collection agency.