The NYPD is unleashing barnacles to battle parking pirates.
The department this week said it will begin testing “windshield boots” — a 17-pound device that attaches onto a vehicle’s windshield like a barnacle and remain there until a scofflaw pays their tickets — on illegally parked vehicles.
The contraption is also known as a Barnacle Device for the way it uses commercial-grade suction cups to attach to the glass with 1,000 pounds of force, making it impossible to drive or remove — like the sticky crustaceans on their oceanic hosts, officials said.
Unlike steel parking boots — which lock a car’s wheels — the device immobilizes vehicles by blocking drivers’ views.
“The use of the Barnacle device is part of a pilot program,” an NYPD spokeswoman said Saturday. “The NYPD has leased four devices and we will use them to target illegally parked trucks and vehicles with excess fines.”
The panels cost $250 each per month to operate. So far, the city has leased four, which it used during an operation in Queens going after illegally parked trucks, the NYPD said.
The NYPD and the city didn’t immediately answer questions about how far they planned to expand the pilot program and how many more they would buy.
“This allows us to hold those accountable, reduce parking congestion & address cars that are a nuisance & hazard to the community,” the NYPD’s Chief of Transportation Philip Rivera tweeted Thursday.
The yellow panels have a polycarbonate body and can only be removed using a code — that is supplied once a scofflaw pays their fine, according to the company behind the device, Barnacle Parking.
“Motorists can remove the device themselves once they enter a code or pay a required fine,” the company’s website states. “And for parking managers, there’s no motorist interaction required, resulting in enhanced safety.”
Any driver who tries to pull an Ace Ventura and drive with the device attached while hanging out the window will suffer a blaring alarm and can be tracked with GPS, the company noted. Drivers will also have to pay a $200 deposit for the device that they’ll get back when they return the device to a drop box.
The devices are already being used in some city’s, including Greeley, Colorado, and Charleston, South Carolina, and by some parking companies and universities, the company said.