Beginning November 1, 2024, the City of Great Falls will be reinstating their parking violation procedures, following a two-year suspension.
The city’s standard parking violation procedures were suspended in 2022, due to a license plate recognition error that has now been fixed.
Brock Cherry, director for city planning and community development, explained, “The city started to not boot cars anymore during 2022 because there was a reconfiguration with the software that we used, in order to ensure that we were booting the proper persons and also being able to mail them letters concerning any sort of violation that they had.”
The City of Great Falls uses the third-party entity, Passport Parking, for metered parking around downtown.
Passport Parking did not have access to the state DMV data, which caused the license plate recognition error within the software.
“It's state-owned information, it’s sensitive, and when [the state] distributes it to an entity like Passport, they want to ensure that everything is protected and taken care of,” explained Cherry.
The parking violation procedures will go back into effect on November first, as well as the city’s letter notifications letting individuals know of any outstanding citations.
Individuals with current unpaid citations should pay those before November first, to avoid being booted.
“During this two-year period of not booting, essentially what we've had is people have been able to just get parking ticket after parking ticket without any sort of [further] enforcement for that ticket. So what that has resulted in is we have a certain amount of folks who have compiled approximately $80,000 worth of violations,” said Cherry.
Vehicles with five or more unpaid citations after November 1st, will be eligible for “booting” and will then have to pay a $150 immobilization fee. If booted, the car will be impounded if still not paid after 48 hours.
“I strongly suggest getting those tickets paid, so that we don’t have any negative experiences and we can continue to have a wonderful downtown parking program,” Cherry added.
Individuals who are unsure of any outstanding citations, can contact the Great Falls City Planning and Community Development Department.
Any parking citations may be paid in the Planning & Community Development Department located in Room 112 at the Civic Center, or online by clicking here.
Click here to learn more about parking in downtown Great Falls.
