Drivers who rack up outstanding parking violations could find their vehicles clamped down at the curb under City Councilman Charles Djou's proposal to use "smart boots" on O'ahu.

Under the plan, people with three or more parking tickets overdue by 90 days or more would be subject to having their car immobilized by a metal "boot" locked to a wheel until they clear their obligations.

The smart boot program, developed by New Jersey-based PayLock Inc., has been adopted by a dozen cities and municipalities across the country, including Denver, Baltimore and New Orleans.

The state would collect the parking fines and PayLock would charge scofflaws a fee on top of that, much like a towing company charges vehicle owners a fee to get their car back.

As part of the program, vans equipped with advanced license plate recognition technology would patrol streets and highways identifying vehicles with outstanding fines on their record. Once identified, the vehicles would be subject to immobilization with the smart boot.

To remove the boot, the vehicle operator would call a 24-hour call center and pay for the outstanding citations and administrative fees with a credit card. Once these are paid, the operator would be given a pass code, which he or she could use to unlock the boot. The operator would need to return the boot within a designated amount of time to avoid further penalty.

The program is viewed as more efficient and less punitive than towing or traditional wheel locks, which have to be removed by a representative of the company.

"The public policy objective is to get illegal vehicles off the highways," Djou said. "There are a lot of people who think, 'If I pay my taxes and fees, why do I have to share the road, which my tax dollars paid for, with those that are not paying?' "

A Honolulu Police Department study in December identified 6,624 vehicles -carrying about $1.5 million in unpaid fines — that could potentially be immobilized under the program.

The City Council last year unanimously adopted a resolution asking for a study on the feasibility of implementing the program in Hawai'i. That study, completed by HPD's Traffic Division in December, identified city and state laws that would need to be changed to clear the way for a smart boot program.

Djou said administrative fees, which range from $50 to $300 per vehicle in other cities using the smart lock system, would cover the cost of having PayLock administer the program. Depending on the specific terms of the contract, the city could receive a portion of those fees.

Under Hawai'i law, parking fines go directly to the state, and counties are prohibited from assessing additional penalties or charges. The law would need to be changed for the city to be able to assess and keep the administrative fees necessary to run the program.

"If we can't charge the administrative fee, we would need to turn to taxpayers," Djou said. "I'm not interested in that."

PayLock Inc. president Cory Marchasin said the company has used smart boots to immobilize more than 65,000 cars over the past four years — an estimated 98 percent for delinquent parking fines.

In Syracuse, N.Y., the program collected about $2.19 million in overdue fines in the first six months, more than any entire year in the previous decade, news reports said.

In Wilmington, Del., introduction of the smart boot led to a $1 million increase in parking fine collections in the first year.

While the program has helped local governments collect overdue fines, Marchasin said the long-term value of the smart boot is in building a "culture of compliance" in which vehicle operators are motivated to pay their fines on time to avoid getting immobilized.

"Cities have struggled with backlogs and compliance is not high," Marchasin. "That's because the social and political impact has been too much. Most would rather pass on collecting receivables rather than incur the negative public reaction of what can be an incredibly onerous process.

"People who haven't paid their fines are commonly viewed as deadbeats or scofflaws, but really they're someone's neighbor or someone's grandmother who just hasn't paid yet. This program takes a criminal sanction-like punishment and makes it more of a straight-forward business process."

The program has been used for other purposes. Fredericksburg, Va., has used the system to lock the cars of people who are delinquent on their property taxes. During a four-month trial period last year, the city collected more than $60,000 in delinquent taxes, compared with $14,600 in the previous year.

Djou said he would like to see the program expanded to target uninsured vehicles, but said nothing can be done until a central database of such information was established.

Carlino Giampolo of Honolulu said using the program to collect unpaid parking fines is a good idea. "Even our president is talking about responsibility and all of us as citizens need to take responsibility," he said.

Giampolo added the program has worked well in his native Pittsburgh.

"There are fewer and fewer individuals who aren't paying their fines," he said. "They're taking greater responsibility."

Asa Vigstrom, 40, of Waikiki, said the program could be effective in deterring people from parking illegally, thereby making the streets safer for cyclists like herself. Still, she wonders if the city is focusing on the symptom and not the cause.

"Is there adequate parking on the island?" she asked. "If not, maybe they should fix that first."