photo from our archives, September 1, 2022 “Parking enforcement booted 11 cars in a four block radius in Lamond Riggs”
Ed. Note: we last shared a “DPW scofflaw enforcement” update here in May 2025.
“Dear PoPville,
I wanted to see if the community has any insight on DC’s boot process. I few weeks ago, I noticed several cars over a week long period or less getting booted in my neighborhood in northeast. This included my friend’s car which only had two unpaid parking tickets (which they didn’t know about because of a clerical error by the city, and still had to pay the tickets and boot fee, but that’s a different story).
Legally, any vehicle with two or more unpaid tickets (of any kind of violation) older than 60 days is eligible for boot and tow.
I found an article from the DCist from 2021 which says boot crews travel certain routes in certain wards. The city council had a hearing on the issue and how boot crews were not targeting those with major fines and dangerous violations. Earlier this year, DC made a big show of stepping up booting and towing, targeting scofflaws with major fines and dangerous moving violations. Part of why enforcement was so low was because of staffing shortages and not enough lot space.
I hadn’t seen boot crews in my neighborhood before, and because they all happened at once, it made me suspect they are now moving neighborhood to neighborhood, or perhaps that my neighborhood is now one of their set routes.
Today, I walked by a seemingly abandoned car with Maryland plates and at least 10 parking tickets in the Dupont circle area. That made me think about this experience and how the boot crew is choosing to use its limited resources. How do the boot crews determine which vehicles to boot, which neighborhoods and streets to patrol? If there are such limited resources, shouldn’t they be prioritizing those with significant fines and dangerous infractions? Anyone else in the community noticing an increase in booting in their neighborhoods?“