City of Charleston says “barnacle” parking enforcement program is a success so far
CHARLESTON, S.C. Nov 3 2022 It’s been six months since the City of Charleston started using barnacles to get people to pay excessive unpaid parking fees.
The city says so far; the pilot program has been successful.
“The program is going great. We have deployed and released 120 barnacles in 6 months. So, we consider the past six months very successful,” said Tyrone Lawrence, Director of Parking Services, City of Charleston.
Lawrence said the city had collected almost $40,000 worth of unpaid parking tickets.
“By deploying the barnacle, it immobilizes your vehicle. You have to pay the fees of the barnacle as well as your unpaid tickets, then the vehicle would be released back to the owner,” said Lawrence.
To get the barnacle off, that alone is about 85 dollars.
The goal is for the city to use the barnacle 70 percent of the time and the traditional boot the other 30 percent.
Lawrence said sometimes they still have to use the boot if someone’s windshield is cracked or a car is too big.
He said overall, the technology of the barnacle system is much more efficient than using the boot.
“The barnacle is a cloud base system, its GPS coordinated. It’s always going to tell us where the barnacle is located and which vehicle it’s attached to,” said Lawrence.
Lawrence said another pro is that someone can pay anytime via the barnacle app or by calling a number.
That means people don’t have to wait for typical business hours to have it removed.
“A parking enforcement officer (who works) mostly during business hours will release the barnacle; worst case scenario, a police officer would be dispatched to release the barnacle,” said Lawrence.
Right now, the pilot program still has six more months to go.
The city has five barnacles, and Lawrence said there would be more by the end of the program.
“My goal is to keep the barnacle going. It’s been successful in my eyes. Because the goal is to do away with the boot,” said Lawrence.
