July 14, 2022
Nyasha Smith, Secretary
Council of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20004
Dear Secretary Smith,
Today, I am introducing the Booting and Impoundment Reform Amendment Act of
2022. Please find enclosed a signed copy of the legislation.
This legislation would provide the Department of Public Works (DPW) with
authority to enter private commercial garages and parking lots for purposes of
booting boot-eligible vehicles known to be in those garages and lots. It would also
require DPW to implement a real-time boot crew alert system, to, at times, deviate
from pre-determined routes in order to boot or impound eligible vehicles, and to
publish an annual report on the agencys booting and impoundment efforts.
In 2015, Mayor Bowser first announced the Districts commitment to Vision Zero, a
cross-agency initiative intending to bring an end to traffic fatalities by 2024. In the
years since, the Council has worked with the Mayor to achieve this goal, including
passing comprehensive omnibus Vision Zero legislation in 2020. Unfortunately, the
number of traffic fatalities in the District has grown almost every year since the
Mayor made this commitment; the District had 40 traffic fatalities in 2021,
compared to 26 in 2015. There have already been 19 fatalities in 2022. And,
frustratingly, not one provision in the Vision Zero legislation passed by the Council
in 2020 has been funded to date. Our Vision Zero work is too important to wait, and
we must do more to get that lawand the essential protections it will provide to all
users of our roadwaysinto effect.
However, the investments in safety infrastructure and traffic calming measures
prescribed in the Vision Zero legislation are just one piece of this work. Enforcement
of our traffic laws against unsafe or reckless driver behavior is a key component of
reaching Vision Zero. Drivers that speed, run red lights or stop signs, and otherwise
behave dangerously behind the wheel pose a direct threat to other users of our
roadwaysincluding pedestrians, cyclists, e-mobility devices, and other drivers. A
critical strategy for curbing these behaviors is ensuring that tickets are enforced.
Unfortunately, by and large, that is not happening. According to DPW, almost
550,000 District, Maryland, and Virginia vehicles are boot-eligiblemeaning the
vehicle has two or more unpaid parking or ATE camera tickets that are 60 days or
older. A number of these tickets are for dangerous driver behaviors. For example,
about 75,000 boot-eligible vehicles have tickets for going 21+ over the speed limit;
about 150,000 have tickets for running a red light; and 50,000 for running a stop
sign.
There are several reasons for this low level of enforcement from the agency,
including lack of staff capacity, the agencys pre-determined routes for vehicle
booting and impoundment, and the fact that many drivers with unpaid tickets park
their vehicles in private commercial parking lots and garages. The Committee on
Transportation & the Environment attempted to address the first reason by
providing DPW with additional staff and funding for the boot crew through the
FY2023 budget. This legislation attempts to address the other two reasons for low
enforcement by requiring owners of private commercial parking lots and garages to
collect and submit to DPW license plate numbers of vehicles utilizing the garage,
enabling DPW to access vehicles in those private commercial parking lots and
garages for purposes of booting boot-eligible vehicles, and by requiring DPW boot
crew staff to deviate from their pre-determined routes when boot-eligible vehicles
are located in commercial lots and garages nearby. These changes should greatly
increase enforcement by putting an end to a loophole that allows scofflaw vehicles to
avoid enforcement by parking in private lots. And, as a result, as a consequence of
this increased enforcement, the law should help compel drivers to halt dangerous
driving behaviors that put the lives of other users of the roadway at risk.
Should you have any questions about this legislation, please contact my Legislative
Director, Michael Porcello, at mporcello@dccouncil.us or (202) 724-8062.
Thank you.
Best,
Mary M. Cheh
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2 __________________________
3 Councilmember Mary M. Cheh
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6 A BILL
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8 _________________
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10
11 IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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13 _________________
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15 To amend the District of Columbia Traffic Act, 1925 to provide the Department of Public Works
16 with authority to enter private commercial garages and parking lots; to require DPW to
17 implement a real-time boot crew alert system; and, to require DPW to publish an annual
18 report on the agencys booting and impoundment efforts.
19
20
21 BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
22 act may be cited as the Booting and Impoundment Reform Amendment Act of 2022.
23 Sec. 2. Section 6(k) of the District of Columbia Traffic Act, 1925, effective March 3,
24 1925 (43 Stat. 1121; D.C. Official Code 50-2201.03), is amended by adding new subsections
25 (6), (7), (8), and (9) to read as follows:
26 (k)(6)(A)(i) Where the owner or operator of a motor vehicle pays to park at a private
27 commercial garage or parking lot under a short- or long-term parking plan, the owner of the
28 private commercial garage or parking lot shall collect and submit to the Department of Public
29 Works (DPW) the following data:
30 (I) The license plate number of the motor vehicle; and
31 (II) The term length, days of the week, and hours that the
32 owner or operator of the motor vehicle is authorized to park at the private commercial garage or
33 parking lot.
34 (ii) The owner of a private commercial garage or parking lot shall
35 provide DPW with the data required under subsubparagraph (i) regardless of duration of the
36 short- or long-term parking plan; provided, that the term shall be at least 24 hours in a given
37 month.
38 (iii)(I) The owner of a private commercial garage or parking lot
39 shall collect the data required under subsubparagraph (i) of this paragraph prior to the start of any
40 term plan, and submit the data to DPW within 48 hours of receipt of the data.
41 (iv) Within 180 days after the effective date of this Act, DPW
42 shall post on the agency website and provide written notice to all owners of private commercial
43 garages or parking lots of the requirements of this act, including information on how owners may
44 submit the data required under subsubparagraph (i).
45 (B)(i) Where DPW has actual knowledge of the presence of a boot-
46 eligible vehicle in a private commercial garage or parking lot, DPW or their designated agents
47 shall be authorized to enter private commercial garages and parking lots in order to identify and
48 enforce against vehicles eligible for booting or impoundment.
49 (ii) DPW shall be deemed to have actual knowledge of the
50 presence of a boot-eligible vehicle in a private commercial garage or parking lot where:
51 (I) The vehicle is authorized to park in the private
52 commercial garage or parking lot on that day and time, per the data provided to DPW under
53 subparagraph (A)(i) of this paragraph; provided, that DPW or its agents shall not be authorized to
54 enter a private property under this subsubsubparagraph on a day or time the vehicle is not
55 authorized to park at the property;
56 (II) A DPW employee or designated agent witnessed the
57 vehicle enter the private commercial garage or parking lot within the preceding 12 hours; or
58 (III) DPW is alerted under paragraph (7) of this section, or
59 by the owner of a private commercial garage or parking lot of the presence of a boot-eligible
60 vehicle at the property.
61 (7)(A) Where employees of DPWs Parking Enforcement Management Administration,
62 employees of the District Department of Transportation including Traffic Controls Officers, or
63 Metropolitan Police Department officers (traffic safety employees) encounter a parked or
64 stopped vehicle that the employee has reason to know is eligible for booting, the employee shall
65 immediately notify the DPW staff responsible for booting of vehicles of the location and license
66 plate number of the boot-eligible vehicle using the system established pursuant to
67 subsubparagraph (II) of this subparagraph. and
68
69 (B) DPW shall implement a system by which traffic safety employees
70 can notify the DPW staff responsible for booting vehicles of the location and license plate
71 number of boot-eligible vehicles in real-time.
72 (8) If an employee from the DPW office responsible for booting vehicles is on duty and
73 within one mile of any boot-eligible vehicle at the time a notification under paragraph (7) is
74 received, the employee shall immediately divert from his route to travel to and enforce against
75 the boot-eligible vehicle.
76 (9) To track the agencys progress on addressing the issue of boot-eligible vehicles in
77 the District, beginning July 1, 2025, and each July 1 thereafter, DPW shall transmit to the
78 Council and publish a report on its website that includes:
79 (1) The number of vehicles booted during the preceding year;
80 (2) The number of vehicles impounded during the preceding year; and
81 (3) The number of boot-eligible vehicles as of June 1 of that year.
82 Sec. 3. Fiscal impact statement.
83 The Council adopts the fiscal impact statement in the committee report as the fiscal
84 impact statement required by section 4a of the General Legislative Procedures Act of 1975,
85 approved October 16, 2006 (120 Stat. 2038; D.C. Official Code 1-301.47a).
86 Sec. 4. Effective date.
87 This act shall take effect following approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto by the
88 Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto), a 30-day period of congressional review as
89 provided in section 602(c)(1) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, approved December
90 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 813; D.C. Official Code 1-206.02(c)(1)), and publication in the District of
91 Columbia Register.