Columbia Public Works using yellow Barnacles for vehicles with unpaid tickets
Erika McGuire
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The City of Columbia has brought back the use of yellow Barnacles for vehicles with unpaid tickets.
According to Columbia Public Works, it will only Barnacle people with four or more tickets that have aged past their court dates. However, before adding the Barnacle, the driver will be warned with a sticker on their vehicle and will be given an additional 72 hours to pay past-due tickets.
“We have look to look in the system to see if there are four unpaid tickets past their court date and to make sure of that we have to call the prosecutors office and confirm with them that they are still unpaid and then we apply a sticker to the windshield indicating they are on the tow list and they are in danger of being towed for unpaid tickets,” Tiffany Heibel with Columbia Public Works said.
The use of the Barnacle began in June and the city says it has used a Barnacle on three vehicles.
Public works currently owns three Barnacles and were purchased in 2016 for between $600-$900.
The Barnacle is an alternative to the old-fashioned wheel boot, designed to immobilize a vehicle by attaching to the windshield.
“[We] apply the barnacle onto the windshield, it’s really just the key that locks it. There’s not a code to disable it. You also have to have a key and it will mechanically suction onto to the windshield so they won’t be able to pull it off,” Kollin McCoy, with Columbia Public Works, said.
“The battery life is about three days. We will check it every single day to make sure the battery is keeping up and change out the battery, if need be,” Heibel said.
Tampering with a Barnacle could add more cost on to unpaid tickets.
“It could shatter their windshield, it could damage their cars in different ways, as far as I know it’s illegal to remove them also,” Heibel said.
The Barnacles do not have GPS monitoring or an alarm system if someone attempts to drive off with Barnacle. In an email to ABC 17 News Thursday morning, John Ogan with Public Works said the Barnacles are preferred to towing because it allows the driver to take care of their past due citations without having to pay towing and impound fees, or having to track down their vehicle.
If a driver has issues paying citations, Ogan said they can use the court date printed on the citations as an opportunity to speak with a municipal court judge, who can weigh the particulars of their case.
“They aren’t targeting anybody nor do they change enforcement patterns, they are sent out. And if they encounter a vehicle that hasn’t paid, a ticket is issued,” Ogan said.
The city took over parking enforcement in October 2024 from the Columbia Police Department, who managed it for four years. Enforcement of parking tickets began in January 2025.
“The main goal of the Barnacle is to ensure parking ordinances are followed and that the downtown area stays functional and fair. The purpose of a parking meter is not to collect revenue, it’s to make sure cars leave prime parking spaces,” Ogan said. “If we didn’t have parking meters people could stay in front of business the entire day and then people would have difficulty accessing that business,”
According to data requested by ABC 17 News, when Barnacles were last used in 2019, the city deployed them 156 times.
More recent citation data shows Columbia issued 2,121 parking citations in June and another 1,470 citations from July 1-25.
The city says it will use Barnacles for the foreseeable future.