MEDICINE PARK – Town officials are exploring ways to discourage people from parking in the town’s no-parking zones.
The Medicine Park Board of Trustees discussed on Aug. 25 the possibility of either clamping parking boots on illegally parked vehicles or hiring a towing company to tow those vehicles, but the board did not take action.
A parking boot is a heavy, tire-sized metal clamp that immobilizes a vehicle by locking one of its wheels. The device, which ensures that the vehicle cannot be driven away, is typically used to address serious parking violations or force people to pay their outstanding parking tickets.
Using parking boots would not be feasible for Medicine Park, said Police Chief Tom Crawford.
“With the boots, you’re going to have a pretty good supply of boots,” he said. “You’re going to have to have the manpower to be able to place those boots and maintain those boots.”
Crawford said if a police officer calls a wrecker to tow an illegally parked car, the officer has to stay with the car until the wrecker arrives. He said if the car driver arrives on the scene and drives off before the wrecker gets there, the wrecker driver will be angry and will stop responding to calls.
“If you’re going to do towing, then I suggest – based on what we did in Lawton – is you put out bids for a wrecker service to monitor those no-parking areas,” Crawford said. “And then without us having to call, if they see someone in a no-parking area, they just hook it up and they tow it.”
The town currently issues citations for people who park in no-parking areas.
No parking at the fire station Part of the discussion centered on drivers who park in front of the fire station, which creates a public safety issue.
The town looks bad if people park at the fire station and someone posts photos of the illegally parked vehicles on social media, said consultant JJ Francais.
“The problem is, the cops can’t sit there and tow every vehicle to start with,” he said. “So the question, was, ‘How do you fix it?’” Francais said hiring a towing company to monitor no-parking zones and tow away any illegally parked vehicles would be the easiest solution to the problem. He added that the signs marking no-parking zones should include the towing company’s phone number.
City Attorney Jordan Cabelka said the town would have a public relations problem if a towing company hauled off dozens of illegally parked cars during an event.
“That’s not going to be good publicity for the town,” he said.