The idea of Honolulu parking enforcement officers attaching a tire "boot" to immobilize the car of a scofflaw driver makes some sense, given that other cities have had success with their programs.

The problem is that City Councilman Charles Djou, who has introduced a resolution to pursue the idea, has put the cart before the horse.

Other steps should be taken first, or this plan — which would force drivers to pay up on their parking tickets to remove the boot from the wheel — will prove more trouble than it's worth.

Resolution 08-112 asks the Honolulu Police Department to study the feasibility and costs of launching such a program here. There are no funds alloted for the study but even if there were, a state law would need to change to make the most of such a program.

Initially, Djou had hoped that the boot would not only prod drivers to pay tickets but would force compliance with car insurance requirements. But he's had to remove that from the resolution because there is no state database identifying insured car owners, and therefore no way to add the insurance premium to the bills a "booted" driver would have to pay.

Also, unlike other cities, Honolulu employees hand out the tickets but payment is sent through the courts and routed to the state general fund; the city gets nothing.

Court staff put the current sum of upaid and delinquent tickets at $13.7 million, so there's definitely an incentive to collect the money. But state lawmakers, not the City Council, are better positioned to do it. They can tap some citation revenue to fund the feasibility study, for starters.

The development of an insurance database has been raised before. The industry locally has opposed it because it would mean startup costs, borne both by the insurance carriers — passed on to policyholders — and by taxpayers.

The high-tech system Djou proposes might pencil out in the long run; early adopters like Denver and Richmond, Va., cite reduced labor costs. Booted motorists can simply call a toll-free number to pay by debit or credit card and release the boot themselves, using a digital code.

It sounds like a system that deserves a look, but it's a discussion better begun at the state Capitol than at City Hall.