In Chicago, "The Cost Of Corruption Is Passed On To You, The Car Owner"

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In Chicago, a tow truck driver wore a wire to document crooked cops involved fraud. According to this article in cbs2chicago.com, the...

...wiretaps started "after CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman exposed widespread fraud in the towing industry two years ago."

This is a POORLY-REGULATED INDUSTRY and it INVITES FRAUD. A lot of this stuff that went down in Chicago couldn't have happened if towing data had been accessible to all parties--police, owners, insurance companies, municipalities--with a stake in towing.

So what did happen? Well, check out the article for the dirty details, but in summary: tow truck drivers had to pay police to get tows, cops selling guns to tow truck drivers, police asking tow truck drivers to steal cars and plant guns in vehicles, cops staging accidents for insurance fraud, and that kind of thing.

The costs were, according to the informant, passed on to the consumer.

All the evidence I see tells me Chicago is the tip of the iceberg. This kind of corruption happens where there isn't widespread oversight and shared data when it comes to towing.