The NYPD recently unveiled their newest device to deter illegally parked cars, and contrary to the tire boot we’re used to, this one goes on your windshield.
Dubbed the Barnacle, the new boot is a 17-pound plastic yellow box that covers a car’s windshield (so pretty much exactly what you may imagine it looking like when hearing the term “barnacle”), though contrary to the real barnacles you find in the ocean you can’t easily scrape this one off–and, if you attempt to, an alarm will sound.
As for removing it, drivers that find one attached to their car will have to scan the QR code on the device, put in their license plate number, and pay a $185 fine. They’ll then receive a code to punch into the Barnacle that will release it, allowing you to fold it up and drop it off, states the company’s website.
So gone are the days of having to wait hours for a traffic agent to come remove a traditional tire boot from your car!
A few Barnacles are currently floating around NYC, though more will be introduced as the NYPD parts ways with the traditional tire boots.
According to NYPD Traffic Enforcement Inspector Brian O’Sullivan, the new boots are safer for officers and can easily track the car they’re attached to–which only takes about 20 to 30 seconds (compared to the two to three minutes it takes to attach a traditional tire boot). O’Sullivan stated:
There’s a built-in motor and it has two suction cups. It goes on the windshield. A thousand pounds of pressure and it self-regulates. So if the temperature gets colder or warmer, it’ll regulate the pressure…Not only is it safer and faster the technology it has makes it more efficient. We get real-time GPS locations. So if someone tries to drive off with it we get notifications. And if anyone is trying to tamper with it we also get live notifications.
The Barnacles were first rolled out in Queens as part of a pilot program. More will begin circulating throughout the next few weeks, expanding to the rest of NYC.