Putting The "Montreal Model" In Front Of Minneapolis Mayor Elect Betsy Hodges...

Wiki Commons image, blog post by John Hoff

Recently, Minneapolis Mayor Elect  Betsy Hodges sent out an email to numerous citizens of Minneapolis soliciting ideas and input about how to make our city better. I took the opportunity to put some ideas in front of Hodges about crime and revitalization issues in North Minneapolis and, of course...

The Montreal Model Of Non-Consensual Towing.

Click here for previous coverage about this topic. 

When there is a snow emergency in Montreal, Canada, and citizens park mistakenly or can't move fast enough to avoid the snowplows, their vehicles DO NOT end up at the impound lot. Instead...

Told You So FOUR YEARS AGO!!!! Cedar Towing In Minneapolis Caught Red Handed In Dirty Practices, Fined By City, Portion Of Towing Operations Suspended...

Photo, blog post by John Hoff

 Four years ago, this blog first reported on concerns about Cedar Towing that were raised at a meeting at a local mosque on the West Bank, click here. Cedar isn't some small, obscure, unscrupulous little operator but the largest towing company in Minneapolis. It is symbolic of the actual and potential abuses in "nonconsensual towing" all over the nation, which was the reason I started this blog. Cedar Towing is now inspiring me to make this blog more active, at least this moment, today.

The Mineapolis Star Tribune is reporting Cedar Towing will pay a $10,000 fine and see its license suspended for 30 days. Reportedly, the company collected over $100,000 in improper fees LAST YEAR ALONE. This article, click here, also outlines what the purported problems were. 

In the settlement, click here for actual settlement document, Cedar Towing doesn't admit it broke any rules. Under the "I didn't break any rules but I'm paying $10,000" settlement, Cedar Towing agrees to suspend its "nonconsensual" towing for 30 days. Cedar can still tow people who request tows. Fair enough, but any decent person should avoid calling this particular towing company after allegations by city officials of such flagrant abuses.

The company is also moving its business to 3527 Dight Avenue.

The Star Tribune reporter who wrote the most recent article, Matt McKinney, is unfortunately not the sharpest tool in the shed based on my own dealings with him. McKinney wrote the company was moving to 3527 Dight Avenue SOUTH. There is no such animal, city records show it's just "Dight Avenue" at that address.

The address in question is listed under a "master address" of 3534 Snelling Avenue, which is owned by one John C. Kemp, with Martin M. Kemp listed as the taxpayer. Martin's address is listed as 2231 Bronson Dr., Moundsview, Minn. 

Yes, Towing Utopia Dot Com Is Still Alive...

This blog entered a long period of inactivity because it just wasn't possible to put the time into it which the issue needed. Recently, I've become convinced that I must find a way to return to putting up content on this blog and drumming this issue but, well, it's a matter of how to pull that off.

Thinking. Thinking.

An Open Letter To President Obama (Stopping Predatory Towing Is A Clever And Amazingly Cheap Policy Tweak)

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Dear President Obama,

I'm sure a gazillion editorial writers all have suggestions for you, and something like this blog post is likely to get lost in the shuffle like...car keys in half-frozen Minnesota slush. But what you said today about George Washington at Valley Forge made me think, well, I have to at least TRY to make my country a little better....

I'm hoping this blog post might somehow get to one of your low-level administration officials, a congressional or senate aide, SOMEBODY who sees the sense in this assertion: Some "policy tweaks" can really help the people of the nation and its economy, but don't cost much money at all. Regulating predatory towing is one such policy tweak.

What Predatory Towing Costs The Nation

The loss of a vehicle--even temporary--keeps individuals from getting to work. It creates chaos in personal schedules, and then concentric rings of chaos which ripple into society. Somewhere, a nurse doesn't show up for work, and another nurse has to work overtime, stressed out, more prone to make mistakes. Somewhere a teacher doesn't make it to school and a substitute teacher--sincere, but less skilled and prepared--has to fill in for half of the day. The students suffer. And so forth.

(Geez, Mr. President, this really reminds me of the poem read at your inauguration, but in a negative way. Yes, "somewhere somebody patches a tire." YES, BECAUSE A TOW TRUCK DRIVER DRAGGED THE VEHICLE SEVERAL MILES WITH THE BRAKES ENGAGED, CLICK HERE. Oh, gee, turns out that particular tire problem can't be patched)

This chaos caused by the towing of vehicles might be something society could absorb, because parking rules must be enforced, and a lack of parking creates its own chaos. But here's the problem: there is overwhelming documentation that some towing companies--certainly not all--engage in abusive, predatory practices. And it has only gotten worse in the current tough economy. And, like you said...things will get worse before getting better.

The recovery rates for impounded vehicles are shocking. We're grabbing cars from poor people and selling the vehicles for scrap, or shipping the cars to Mexico for pennies on the dollar. People who have nowhere left to live but their car suddenly have nowhere left to live but under a bridge. All of this is because we don't place a high enough priority on clever, high-tech solutions. Why shouldn't Americans be notified by cell phone or Blackberry (I know you love your Blackberry, Mr. President) of an impending tow?

Why shouldn't Americans be told "move it or lose it" before having their car seized and held hostage? Or at least have regulation which requires--good grief, Mr. President--reasonably visible signage?

An Uprising Among Some Vehicle Owners

Sir, recently there have been instances of rebellion and protest around this issue. There has been violence as some vehicle owners--pushed to the absolute limit--fight back against tow truck operators.

It really doesn't have to be this way. States already have the ability to regulate towing operations in sensible ways, but many just don't. Worse, there is evidence the dirty money which comes from aggressive, predatory towing gets into city politics, as we see in places like Springfield, Massachusetts. This blog has been documenting the problem for months, in numerous states.

Some Clever Policy Tweaks Are Cheap

I'd like to compare what I'm suggesting to something which happened under the Clinton Administration. In a bipartisan effort, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act was passed. It's a sensible law which allows restaurants and grocery stores to donate food to soup kitchens, food banks, homeless shelters, etc. and be protected from liability as long as they make the donations with "normal care."

Just by casting a shield of protection from liability, this law has managed to shake loose all kinds of donations to hungry people, just like that! With the stroke of a pen. It's not only good politics, but very FRUGAL politics.

Towing regulation can happen in the same way. Just by making sure drivers aren't abused by towing operators, and don't lose their vehicles willy-nilly because of abuses, you can keep people participating in the economy and prevent many personal disasters.

Sure, when people voted for you, predatory towing was probably the last thing on their minds. But people are expecting you to be CLEVER, for your administration to pull some kind of amazing miracle from somewhere and help turn the economy around.

This suggestion small, but this will help.

Please, Mr. President, do something to help stop the economic damage and abuses to individual Americans caused by the well-documented problem of predatory towing.

P.S. If you like this idea, sir, I've got another clever policy proposal in regard to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" which I call "Fortresses of Englightment."


Standard Post Addendum:

(Click here for list of various regulatory tactics. Click here for website of Compiled Logic, a company involved in solving these complex problems associated with "non-consent towing" issues)

Thumbnail Summary Of Regulatory Tactics Directed At Predatory Towing

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This post is intended for the researcher or policy-maker seeking a road map or thumbnail summary of regulatory tactics used by cities, states and counties seeking to curtail predatory towing practices...

For simplicity, I will list the various tricks and provide a link with each example.

1.) Outlaw "patrol towing." The practice known as "patrol towing" takes place when the owner of a parking lot gives a towing company free reign to tow unauthorized vehicles, without the need to call about particular vehicles.

Unscrupulous, "bad apple" towing companies will engage in abusive behavior when given such free reign, even towing legally parked vehicles because abuses are usually difficult to prove. Some will actually station "spotters" in parked vehicles or trees to catch as many cars as possible. Because "patrol towing is so rife with abuse, some states such as California have outlawed it, click here.

2.) Outlaw or severely restrict "booting" of cars. Often, booting is more lucrative than towing vehicles. Ransoms can be demanded on the spot, but because each ransom requires a confrontation between booter and driver, violence will happen sooner or later. Cities such as Minneapolis have outlawed booting except in very small lots where tow trucks can't maneuver, click here for link.

3.) The "Let People Get Their Stuff" law, click here. This law allows people to recover items from their towed vehicles (medicine, children's photos, their wallets, for crying out loud) without having to pay to get the vehicle out of impound, for the sake of mercy and human decency.

I've actually had some difficulty nailing down whether this bill passed in Minnesota, because there was so much controversy with that particular transportation bill, and any reporting on this issue was lost in the shuffle. Even Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman was unable to answer my follow-ups about whether the bill he wrote about actually passed.

HOWEVER, a recent trip to the Minneapolis impound lot to recover my stolen van, and some questions I asked there, led me to the conclusion the law did indeed pass or, in the alternative, Minneapolis has altered its policies to "let people get their stuff." This is a great law and should be adopted nationally.

4.) Require towing companies to take checks and credit cards, not just cash. California, which has some of the most highly-developed anti-predatory towing laws in the nation, click here, is one place that outlaws "cash only."

5.) Require impound lots to be reasonable distances from the places where cars are towed. Hawaii, for example, requires this, click here. (Of course, somebody in Hawaii has found a loophole, and it's called "Sand Island.")

6.) Mandatory drop, or greatly reduced fees. If the driver gets to his/her vehicle before the tow truck leaves the lot, a greatly reduced towing fee is required, or even a "free drop." Once again, Hawaii requires this, click here, but this is a fairly common rule around the country. It prevents violence and it is reasonable that a "drop" should cost less than an impound.

7.) Regulating signage. Many traps are laid for the unwary because of unclear, confusing, missing or deliberately deceptive signage. Kansas City, Missouri has been forced to address the issue of bad signage, click here, but once again this is a very common form of towing regulation.

8.) Caps, caps, caps. Everything from the price of the tow, to the daily and HOURLY impound lot storage fee, to where tows can take place and how often, all these things can be capped and regulated. Portland has capped towing fees, click here.

9.) One-hour rule. In California, a vehicle must be illegally parked FOR AN HOUR before being towed, click here. (There are exceptions for vehicles presenting an immediate safety hazard)

10.) Outlaw kick-backs. Please note, this list is NOT in order of importance. Outlawing kickbacks is very important, and if the list were ranked, it might be at No. 1 or No. 2.

"Kickbacks" happen when the owner of a parking lot gets a cut from the various vehicles towed from that lot. Such incentives inevitably lead to abuses. Florida, for example, is a state which outlaws towing kickbacks, click here.

11.) A towing "commission" or "authority." Though I have only a limited amount of faith in this tactic, many jurisdictions have such entities, such as Falls Church, Virginia, click here. The problem with such commissions seems to be "political horse-trading" which takes place prior to their creation. In throwing a bone to powerful towing interests, these commissions are created as relatively toothless entities.

12.) Sting operations directed at predatory towing. Asheville, North Carolina may have saved its reputation as a worthwhile "destination city" by using this tactic, click here.

13.) "Humane and merciful" short towing. Some cities such as Montreal and Madison, Wisconsin deal with snow emergencies by towing non-compliant cars to places where parking is legal instead of impounding the cars, click here, (Montreal) and here (Madison). In Albany, New York, police were actually running plate numbers and BANGING ON THE DOORS OF HOMES to avoid towing citizens, click here.

Cars subjected to "humane and merciful" short tows are apparently still given a ticket and charged for the short tow, but the charges are still much less than being impounded.

14.) Tows must be documented. In California, before a car can be impounded it must be photographed to show how it was non-compliant, and (apparently) the condition of the car prior to being towed, click here.

15.) System transparency, jurisdictions sharing info, modern rather than archaic information systems.

It is essential for jurisdictions to share information with each other so cars can be located in the system, especially stolen cars. Police, insurance companies, owners and tow truck drivers all need to be able to track vehicles. (Police sometimes solve obtain clues to crimes this way, though this is something of an added bonus)

Increasingly, attempts are being made to link as many jurisdictions as possible and create a kind of national network. Here's a recent article in the much-respected "Police Chief Magazine," click here, which talks about those efforts. The author of the article, Ron Smith, works for a company called Compiled Logic of Houston, Texas which helps jurisdictions cost-effectively manage their towing information systems.

16.) Raising consciousness, fighting back against abuses. If you are subjected to predatory towing, don't be silent. Contact this blog through the comments function or by email (hoff_john@yahoo.com) Find the company which mistreated you online, and write a scathing review. File a complaint with your state attorney general, consumer affairs division. Write to your city, county and state authorities.

Rip Off Report Dot Com is a particularly good place to make the record. When somebody Googles the name of the towing company, the "rip off report" will come up, as well.

WRITE TO YOUR SENATOR OR CONGRESSMAN and reference this blog, and ask for renewed federal regulatory action to stop predatory towing but--and this is really important--require jurisdictions to share information and create a seamless national web of information to locate missing cars. Nationally, it is estimated 25 percent of impounded cars are not claimed. This is something we can't afford!

Use this blog to educate yourself about predatory towing patterns and solutions by going through these posts and reading up. I'm just one guy with a blog. I drive really crummy cars. There's only so much I can do, but because of small efforts like this, public consciousness about predatory towing is growing and it will surely have national consequences. Already, there have been protests and uprisings, click here. Political candidates have been elected partially because of these issues, click here.

This is a modern civil rights movement; your right to the freedom, property ownership and pursuit of happiness represented by your precious, beloved car. There is plenty of opportunity to play a role in this movement; even a small role represented by a few emails, photographs, or online comments.

We are Americans, and Americans love their cars. When somebody kidnaps your car and holds it ransom on flimsy pretenses, why, that's just un-American!

It's time for Americans to fight back against abusive and predatory towing.

Dallas Is Filling Its Impound Lots With Seized Cars

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The City of Dallas made good on its threat to enforce an "uninsured motorist ordinance," and has reportedly been seizing cars on a massive scale, according to this article from Channel 11 in Dallas, click here.

In the first nine days of 2009, Dallas police...

...reportedly towed 256 cars. This does not include vehicles towed from accident sites, so that would be mostly seizures. Drivers who are pulled over simply lose their cars if they don't have insurance. They rack up a fine, towing charges, and $20 a day for impound fees.

There are certainly much better incentives to make drivers buy insurance, incentives which don't hurt people so badly in a tough economy. Dallas is driving down the wrong road, and if Dallas thinks there won't be political "push back" from all those upset drivers--poor and uninsured, though they may be--then Dallas is collectively out of its mind.

It is sad and frustrating to see some cities making sensible progress, click here for an example, but then to see such brutal, regressive practices spring up in a major city like Dallas. You have to wonder "WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?!" And why do citizens just knuckle under, like that, and swallow such abuses?

Directing Attention Toward Solutions, Not Just Gripes

My little saga with Towing Utopia began with the seizure of my van in Minneapolis during a snow emergency, click here, and my sense of violation and my certainty there is something fundamentally wrong with the system if vehicles are being seized because--good grief--SOMETIMES IT SNOWS IN MINNESOTA, SURPRISE, SURPRISE.

My goal in 2009, as I stated in this blog post, click here, is to figure out how to give this website a greater impact. Having my van seized AGAIN--this time because it was stolen and recovered--and having to make a trip to the impound lot AGAIN made me think, "What am I doing wrong? What am I doing right? How can I do better?"

Therefore, I have decided every one of my blog posts--EVERY ONE OF THEM--will have two things at the end.

1.) A link to a post suggesting regulatory steps cities commonly undertake to stop predatory towing practices. I have not yet written this blog post, but I will.

In the meantime, some fairly common regulations include: limits on how far vehicles can be towed, regulation of parking lot signage, and prohibitions on "cash only" policies. Anything cities can do to make their systems transparent--to make it possible for all concerned parties to track vehicles on the internet, and have a record of the facts and fees--is particularly good.

Archaic "cash and carbon paper" systems have to go the way of the do-do bird, or citizens will inevitably be abused.

2.) A link to Compiled Logic, click here, a company in Houston, Texas that helps cities solve their towing problems with high tech solutions. This company works closely with reputable towing companies, cities, police departments, etc.

They're businesspeople, not bloggers, so I hope they won't mind unsolicited free publicity.

In my experience, Ron Smith of Compiled Logic is a pretty great guy, super friendly as a good salesman should be. So I don't think he'll mind.

I'll do this because Compiled Logic has some high tech solutions for more transparent, less abusive towing systems. In 2009, I want anybody who stumbles on this blog (while investigating these predatory towing issues) to instantly have an answer to this question:

"Where can my city go to get some help with this problem besides writing about it on a blog?"

Christian Science Monitor Calls Predatory Towing A Source Of National Conflict, Cites THIS BLOG!!!!

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It's official: predatory towing is causing "tension" and "conflict" on a national scale. So says the Christian Science Monitor, click here for the article, and this blog was cited in the story...

I was interviewed by the reporter for over an hour, and I can see a lot of my influence in what he wrote, but more so this blog's influence. In fact, I learned the reporter had spent HOURS reading numerous stories linked in these various posts...including my parody song, "Paint It Red."

The reporter, Patrik Jonsson (it's Swedish,he told me) starts the article in style, citing the situation in Orlando where Paul Gren's questionable practices have been used to fund a personal fleet of customized Harleys. (I'm convinced the reporter learned about Gren from this blog, and I made a point of mentioning Gren and his Harley Davidson fetish)

He next mentions Palm Desert, where drivers have been arrested for committing auto thefts by use of tow trucks.

THEN he starts talking about Asheville, North Carolina, where there was (good heavens) a STING OPERATION against predatory towing, something a lot more cities need to copy.

And the story sticks to Asheville for a long time, basically holding up Asheville as an example.

The moral, according to authorities in Asheville? So-called "destination cities" can't afford to become known as havens for predatory towing. Word gets around. Just ask the Cotton Bowl folks in Dallas, or the Crayfish Boil organizers in Alabama.

A Valuable Nugget Of Information Dropped About Asheville, NC

In talking to the reporter, I learned something interesting: though "tourism bureau" and "chamber of commerce" people were credited with raising the alarm, Jonnson said it was actually police officers who "spent one too many nights trying to keep children warm in the back of their squad cars, while their parents tried to recover their car." These Asheville police officers were actually the ones who first raised the alarm, behind the scenes, about predatory towing in their community.

Balanced--Toward Justice!

Since most readers will never get to the bottom of the article (trust me, I taught journalism) the article may very well be "balanced" by its use of an expert from the towing industry near the end, and a professor who wags his finger at bad city planning, but overall the article mostly comes off as a "wake up call" about an emerging national problem caused by poorly regulated towing companies engaging in shady practices.

One blog devoted to the towing industry tried--with feigned hopefulness--to characterize the article as "balanced." (Click here for that blog post) Yeah, it was balanced. It was balanced toward the cause of JUSTICE and LIBERTY, and not PREDATORY TOWING.

Not Just Data, Some Solutions

The article mentions Ron Smith of Compiled Logic, who I interviewed for a Minnesota Daily opinion column about predatory towing near the beginning of this new direction in my lifelong activism, click here.

Yes, Smith's company tracks data about non-consensual towing, but that's purely secondary to their goals. Compiled Logic makes its money by helping cities solve their towing problems without breaking city budgets, by use of high tech solutions. In fact, Smith seems to have either coined or played a big role in promulgating the terms "non-consensual towing" and "towing life cycle."

The article mentions how "a quarter of all towed cars are never claimed" due to "jurisdictional issues" and "lack of transparency in the system." Well, I'm confident the reporter got that number from Smith, though Smith pulls a lot of his data together from various police agencies. It's a shocking number. As a society, we can't afford to be this inefficient. People need their cars to participate in the economy.

I swear, I'm going to write an open letter to President Obama.

Dude, Donde Esta Mi Autocoche?

The reporter was interested in where all the cars end up, though that didn't end up in his article. We spent a lot of time talking about the tendency of cars to get scrapped, chopped down for parts or--and this was something the reporter found very interesting, though it didnt' end up in the article--end up in Mexico.

I told the reporter "large metal objects do not just disappear off the face of the earth. There's no evidence of time/space wormholes on the surface of our planet. That can't happen."

Towing Utopia Dot Com's Greatest Day...So Far!

This article represents the pinnacle of months of effort at consciousness-raising.

But there's a long way to go before Congress acts, or before states, cities and counties all start waking up to towing abuses. The problem of jurisdictions failing to share data about impounded vehicles--causing a quarter of all cars to be unclaimed--is a huge problem and a huge inefficiency in our struggling economy. It could have easily happened to me after my van was stolen last month, click here. Honestly, I think only the glitch in my starter system caused the van to be recovered a mere 7 blocks away.

So this blog has come a long way, baby. But there's a long road ahead.

Asheville, North Carolina Shines A Light On Predatory Towing

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Ever since All-Safe Towing & Recovery employees were arrested in a sting operation, towing cars they shouldn't have been towing, media scrutiny of the company has been intense...

In fact, the company is under so much scrutiny that local media wrote a story about the fact the company had changed locations, moving closer to downtown Asheville from "151 W. Haywood St. near River Road" because their lease on the property had "ended."

Yeah, "ended." That could mean a lot of things.

Normally, a business changing locations wouldn't merit this kind of media attention, but the tone of the story, click here, makes it clear the media isn't buying, at face value, the owner's explanation this move was routine and "nothing to (do?) with what's been going on."

What's surprising to me is the owner's claim he's been hired to "patrol two more downtown lots."

I'd love to know what Asheville businesses would hire these chumps, and I hope the reporter for this story, Jason Sandford, keeps digging.

My Stolen Van Ends Up At The Minneapolis Impound Lot (Info About Auto Theft Victims Compensation Fund)

Photo By John Hoff

Because this involved North Minneapolis crime, and happened to me personally, I...

...already blogged about this colorful episode at my other site, The Adventures of Johnny Northside. On that blog I had a bit of cathartic fun discussing the theft of my van, then its quick recovery, then those uncertain moments before retrieval at the impound lot when I didn't know if I was picking up my vehicle in one piece...or a claiming a charred hunk of metal.

The Minneapolis Crime Watch blog took note of my van theft episode, and described my posting as "full of snark," which was a compliment...um, I think.

But this blog, Towing Utopia Dot Com, is more about systemic reforms, especially the reduction of predatory towing. Yes, I have some fun, but my aim is very public policy-oriented, so I stick close to the nitty-gritty of towing. No need to go into detail about, for example, how it felt to find the rock which had busted my van window STILL IN MY VAN.

Leaving all that aside...and keeping in mind the full, colorful story of the van theft can be found on my other blog, along with a posting about some sensible security precautions I have taken in the wake of this incident, here are my not-overly-harsh, very helpful, policy-oriented critiques of the Minneapolis towing and impound system in light of this golden opportunity to put myself in the shoes of an auto theft victim.

Hey, wait...those are my shoes.

1.) Why was my van towed in the first place?

My vehicle was recovered the next day, a mere 7 blocks away at 2700 Dupont Ave. N.

In driving past this location, I note that anywhere it would have been parked was legal parking. According to the police report, officers simply ran the plate (probably having seen the broken window on the driver's side) and found the vehicle was "hot." So they called for an impound.

Why? Why didn't somebody just call me to retrieve my van? I seriously doubt the CSI folks were taking fingerprints off the steering wheel when I was told this was most likely juveniles on a gang-initiation joy ride.

2.) By what miracle was I informed about the Auto Theft Impound Fund?

The officer who called to tell me about the recovery of my van told me, verbally, about the Auto Theft Impound Fund. So I knew to ask at the impound lot. The clerk at the impound lot had to walk back to a little wooden shelf...she seemed to be sighing at the effort and exertion I was putting her through...and gave me a photocopied flier with some rudimentary information about the Auto Theft Impound Fund, and the steps I needed to take for compensation.

One step was to call Police Records to document the fact I'd made a report about the stolen vehicle. (612-673-2961)

"You don't have a copy of the report here?" I asked, and she looked at me like I must be just a bit soft in the head, to think the report about a stolen van would be in the same place as, well, the stolen van itself.

I had the sense if I hadn't asked about the Auto Theft Impound Fund, I never would have been told. I would have been an auto theft victim, now victimized TWICE: one by car thieves, once by the impound lot.

3.) Show me the money!!!!

I called up the City Attorney's Office for the form to seek compensation for the tow. (612-673-3549) Two things are required: proof I filed a police report, and proof the vehicle had insurance. I have both pieces of documentation ready to go, but I'm still waiting for the form.

Seriously, they have to MAIL it to me? With a STAMP? Made from the flesh of dead trees? Honestly, they can't email it to me as an attachment?

The police department records unit was able to send me my police report in an email...at least the "public portion" of the report, which was perfectly adequate. Why can't they email me this form I need to request compensation? I'd have the thing completed and mailed back by now.

On the bright side: there is a fund to compensate auto theft victims for towing, and somehow the system managed to provide me the information. I have nothing but praise for police officers who can recover a stolen vehicle in 24 hours. It's not like El Paso, Texas, where cars ended up across the river and you'd see the Mexican police driving what used to be your sports car.

4.) What about other jurisdictions?

My van only went seven blocks. Not only did it stay in the same city, but it stayed in the Hawthorne Neighborhood of North Minneapolis, and within the same police precinct. (And it was still towed! Where's the sense in THAT?)

I was told by one of my North Minneapolis neighbors about the time her vehicle was stolen and ended up in Brooklyn Park or Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. (I don't remember which "Brooklyn" it was, and those neighboring cities are two peas in the same civic pod)

TWO OR THREE YEARS LATER she received some kind of notice from an impound lot. By then, insurance had long ago compensated her for the vehicle.

In my case, I had no comp insurance because I tend to drive piece-of-junk vehicles. If my car had ended up in "one of the Brooklyns," or in St. Paul, or if it had been taken on a joyride to some other Minnesota city, most likely it would have been lost in the system. If it had left the state, it surely would have been lost. My past research on this subject tells me jurisdictions just don't share information very well, click here for article.

Which brings me to a kind of resolution: in 2008, I think this blog did a good job raising consciousness about the phenomenon of predatory towing. In fact, use of the phrase "predatory towing" seems to be increasing in the media, especially in all-important newspaper headlines.

However, the issue of "cross-jurisdictional sharing of towing data," one of the issues which first got me excited about doing this blog, apparently isn't sexy enough to be on the media's front burner.

Yes, there are folks like Ron Smith of Compiled Logic who are plugging away, every day, on that particular issue. But the media has yet to get excited about "Dude Where's My Car Syndrome" and write compelling stories about stolen vehicles lost in the system because jurisdictions--even those RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER--don't share information.

Well, in 2009 I have to get the media excited about DWMCS. (Dude Where's My Car Syndome) I have to find ways to highlight the problem of jurisdictions not sharing information about stolen vehicles very well, leading to inefficiency and economic loss.

I'll do it. By golly.

5.) Towing victims everywhere

A trip through the automotive jailhouse is bleak and depressing. There are acres of vehicles, each of these a story of despair and fury, each an economic drain to the owners and, therefore, to our city and state economy. We, as a civilization, can't afford to be this inefficient.

I re-commit myself to this "Towing Utopia" effort because, for one thing, I see results: the media has embraced the term "predatory towing." The next logical step, once you know predatory towing exists, is to ask "how can there be reform?" So just by spreading this single term around, I'm changing the whole culture.

But with a bloggy soap box on which to stand and shout, much greater reforms are possible...and I feel like the frustrating theft of my van was not without some higher purpose.

Proof Of Reincarnation In Dallas: Lone Star Towing Tries To Come Back Under Other Names

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According to an article in the Dallas Morning News, click here, officials in Dallas are trying hard to avoid another "vehicle-towing debacle" during Cotton Bowl festivities.

An entity called "Lone Star Towing" was...

...associated with a big PR black eye for the city of Dallas due to a previous incident. As discussed here on Towing Utopia, (click for blog post, and also click here) the company snatched vehicles under dubious excuses, and many locals suspect individuals who were associated with Lone Star created "towing traps" to lure the unwary.

Now the article in the Dallas Morning News discusses Lone Star using a tactic common in the predatory towing biz...though the article doesn't make mention of the bigger national pattern, or how common this tactic is. But the article does point out individuals associated with Lone Star--now apparently defunct due to its license being revoked--are trying to come back as "Champion Tows" and "Ideal Towing."

Some other information I picked up, hanging around the virtual gas stations of the internet, says both businesses are located at this address:

8035 East RL Thornton Boulevard, Dallas.

Good to know.

Meanwhile, public officials in Dallas are engaged in a classic case of locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen, closely watching to make sure predatory towing doesn't happen during the Cotton Bowl even while Lone Star reconstitutes itself under their very noses.

You can't get rid of "bad apples" in the towing business, at least not in the present historical period of poor regulation. Only systemic changes will make a difference, especially those changes which use technology to track what is happening with towing, and make the information available to all concerned in the "towing life cycle."

Click here for an article in which "towing life cycle" is used as a term. Love that term. It's so...holistic.

P.S. Am I the only one who notices that ugly Gap billboard ruining the Dallas skyline in the photo above?

No...no, it can't just be me.

Owner Of Desert Automotive Specialists Arrested For Predatory Towing. AGAIN.

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Only several months ago, some folks would still ask me "what is predatory towing?" Now I'm reading headlines about suspects getting ARRESTED for it...

In California, the company called "Desert Automotive Specialists" has been the source of so many darkly-comic stories, all of this stuff dutifully reported by local television station KESQ. My personal favorite episode in that part of the country was when curbs were painted red to justify illegal tows.

Now comes word from KESQ of further arrests for "predatory towing," click here for article.

The station did a fine job running all four mug shots of the suspects. Some media entities might just publish one, and give the other (alleged) criminals a break, but KESQ allowed the public see what these thugs looked like under the spotlight.

And it's not a pretty sight.

Springfield, Massachusetts Towing Scandal Threatens City Government

Image Contributed By "Way Cool 311 Jim"

I wouldn't want to close the greasy books on 2008 without one more post about the Springfield Towing Alliance, the subject of so much interesting ongoing scandal in Springfield, Massachusetts. I've blogged about this messy, almost-darkly-comic situation quite a bit already, click here, and also here.

But now things in Springfield have REALLY taken a serious turn...

The municipal government's functions are imperiled by spin-off from the scandal. How this came about is complicated and a bit hard to follow, but explained pretty well by two excellent articles in The Republican. Click here for the article by Dan Ring, and then click here for a subsequent article by Jack Flynn. (A reporter's name if I ever heard one)

This much I gather from the articles: Springfield has a $52 million dollar loan from the state. They're asking for additional time to pay back the loan, described as a "bail out." According to Flynn's article, the state "imposed a five-member Finance Control Board and stripped city officials of authority over municipal finances." OUCH!!!!!

The governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, is willing to work with the city, but he's being opposed by two legislators. One of the legislators, Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, seems to be involved in legitimate political horse-trading, asking for stuff like requiring a residence requirement for new city employees. The really inexplicable opposition comes from a legislator named Benjamin Swan. He's apparently willing to let city functions come to a screeching halt because, oh gee, some report hasn't been released yet about the Towing Alliance scandal, and how well the city handled that matter.

Well, guess who owns Swan? The Springfield Towing Alliance. From the sound of things, they have clear title to Swan's soul. The president of STA, Robert L. Jones, has contributed money to Swan and Swan has rented property to Jones. And yet Swan has the nerve to say he wants the city to be "fair and objective" in the awarding of contracts.

Swan claims he is "waiting for the state Inspector General's office to complete a review" of the situation with the Towing Alliance, and their loss of the contract for, well, massive malfeasance. (Well, Swan didn't say that LAST part. He is keeping an open mind, it appears, even though the Towing Alliance lost in court, so what is there to review?)

Though you wouldn't think two legislators could impact the fate of a bill so completely, apparently that's the way the votes stack up. While Swan "couldn't be reached for comment" (Dude, check the impound lot) the situation is being described as a "perfect storm" which will cause layoffs and service cutbacks if loan relief doesn't pass.

Ah, Springfield. I'm sure when it's spring, I'll still be writing about Springfield.

Towing Tops The Gripe List At West Virginia University, Morgantown

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According to a recent article in The Charleston Gazette, click here, college students in Morgantown usually have three main areas of concern: parking, TOWING, and landlord issues.

Their student government is speaking up for them at the state legislature, trying to have influence on legislation...

These student leaders have proposed that tow truck drivers should be required to take some other form of payment besides cash and, oh gee, stop operating on "a policy of intimidation and fear."

I don't know. Sounds like asking for a lot.

The article cites the example of a female student who was (apparently) shaken down for $150 cash, and the driver wouldn't show her the towing company's rates. This sounds very similar to a story I documented in Minneapolis, click here.

Also, storage fees for the first 24 hours after an impound is "killing" students, according to Jason Parsons, student body president.

Notably, this is the first West Virginia story to hit my blog. These student leaders just put their state on the Towing Utopia map.

Signs Of The Predatory Towing Times: "Tow Jack" Included In Urban Dictionary Dot Com

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My little contribution to the culture wars: I submitted "Tow Jack" to Urban Dictionary Dot Com, and it was (be still, my foolish heart!) approved and included. Click here for a link.

That wasn't hard, actually. Unlike...

...some contributors to the site, who appear to make stuff up and hope it will be approved for inclusion, (you know who you are) I only submit phrases which I've noted in common usage. And "tow jack" is one such phrase.

Here's an example, click here, where one commenter used the phrase, as in "Sergeant's Towing TOW JACKED a woman in labor."

Towing Scandal Bubbling Beneath The Surface In Lowell, Massachusetts

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A recent story in the Lowell Sun Online starts out as a routine and dry report on the renewal of certain towing contracts. Ah, yes, a bread-and-butter city hall story. Nothing too exciting here. Many readers will never finish the story, because they will move on to something more compelling like...crotch-grabbing former state senators, cruising the park benches of Lowell.

But then, midway through, the tone abruptly changes...

Certain juicy facts start getting aired. Here are the spicy nuggets I managed to pick out from a story which was very tightly packed with facts:

* Last year, a towing company called "Gulbicki's, Inc." performed poorly, and was fired. Some of the "poor performance" included not responding to calls. What's the deal with THAT? The calls weren't LUCRATIVE enough?

* Towing companies are trying to gain political power in Lowell, Massachusetts, as evidenced by the fact Alan Kazanjian--the owner of Kazanjian's Garage, which does towing--was recently elected to the city council.

* The towing companies bid for contracts with the city based on how much they are willing to pay the city PER TOW. So, clearly, these companies have a strong incentive to tow, tow, tow. Is there any concern for the public on the Lowell City Council?

* Christopher's Towing of Chelmsford was eliminated from the bidding because the owner, Christopher Ferreira, was convicted of indecent sexual assault and battery. Ferreira blames it all on his lying ex-girlfriend. No, I'm not making that up.

* In 2005, 6 of 7 towing companies bid less than $1.50 on the tows. The Inspector General issued a report accusing the towing firms of "illegally colluding" on bids. Guess who was one of the companies? Kazanjian's Garage!

All in all, one gets the feeling there is a lot of scandal bubbling beneath the surface in Lowell, Massachusetts and I hope the reporter who wrote this article, Jennifer Myers, gets an opportunity to dig into it further. One gets the sense Lowell, Massachusetts may have the same towing scandal potential as Springfield, Massachusetts. (Click here for an example)

"Spokanistan" Continues To Pour On The Predatory Towing Oppression

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Apparently, some residents of Spokane refer to the city as "Spokanistan." And it's no wonder. In addition to the year-after-year mass towings in Browne's Addition, click here, television station KXLY has written two more stories about what appears to be rampant predatory towing in "Spokanistan."

The first...

...of the stories is about the cost of towing, which is $500, click here for link. How does Spokane allow towing companies to charge this much money? Well...they do. They just do. Because, apparently, that's "Spokanistan" for you.

The second story is truly heartrending, click here. A woman didn't want to get towed in the street during snow removal, so she parked in the alley. The police thought she was blocking garbage collection even though--oh, gee--garbage collection was delayed due to the snowstorm, so really she wasn't. But she was towed anyway. And now she has a bill for $944, more than she can afford.

The towing company--Evergreen Towing--offered to knock off half the free, but the lady says she still can't afford to get her car back.

Predatory Towing Caused Christmas Misery In Springfield, Missouri

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A twisted, wrong-headed interpretation of the words "overnight parking" caused misery for a family in Springfield, according to an article on KY3.com, click here.

It happened like this: The MacGregor family has a daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend was visiting on Christmas. So that tells you something...

It tells you some of the cost of this towing fee will be money the family won't have a chance to use for wedding expenses. Because when a boyfriend visits his girlfriend's family at Christmas, that's SERIOUS.

In any case, the boyfriend and the daughter own a car together (so are they LIVING together? OK, never mind) and he left the car at the Grayhound station after he boarded the bus.

Signs in the parking lot say "No overnight parking" but, obviously, the boyfriend didn't think the sign applied to him leaving the car for a short while and having somebody else pick it up when he boarded the bus. Overnight generally means, well, overnight.

But Greyhound seems to think the words "overnight parking" should be interpreted "unattended vehicles."

Such overzealous interpretation makes me strongly suspect (though I can't prove it, admittedly) somebody is getting a kickback from the towing companies. This type of kickback is so common, and causes so much predatory and abusive towing, that many states have outlawed the practice.

Here's another reason to, as they say, "Go Greyhound" and "Leave the driving to us." Because Greyhound tricked you with a deceptive parking lot sign, then had your car towed.

City Of Spokane Pours On The Predatory Towing Oppression In Browne's Addition

Flickr.com Photo, Spokane

Apparently it happens every year. Snow falls and the City of Spokane demands "move your vehicle!" The residents of an area called Browne's Addition ask...

"Where? Where am I supposed to move it?" And the city tows, like, FIFTY VEHICLES as though the politicians, in their infinite wisdom, are being REASONABLE.

And with KXLY writing stories like this, click here, about a "necessary evil," an uprising like that seen in other states (click here) does not seem likely any time soon.

The real story is told in a single comment posted to the KXLY story:

* "I had no place to move my car, and (I) am an older single parent, with only my Down Syndrome son at home! It took me days to dig out my car and then I couldn't get out because the street had not been plowed."

I have to wonder what is up with the political situation in Spokane. Do the residents of Browne's Addition lack representation and political power to such a degree they are forced to take this, year after year?

On another note: this is my first post for the State of Washington. This tells you something about Washington State: usually, they manage to treat their citizens pretty well. But Spokane is apparently an exception.

Well, even then, not all of Spokane...just the hard-luck, downtrodden souls in Browne's Addition.

Mass Towing Added To A Miserable 2008 Holiday Season

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As if it wasn't bad enough that our nation had one of the worst Christmas retail seasons ever, the large pre-holiday winter storm which dumped snow all over the nation gave many cities an excuse to...

...add even further misery to tightly-stretched holiday budgets with predatory towing practices.

Idaho Falls was an example of this, click here, but I can't really single out this city. Abusive, mass-attack towing happened all over the country...with the notable exceptions of Albany, New York and, (I can assume this based on earlier coverage) Madison, Wisconsin.

It is frustrating for me to see the snowstorm a-coming...to watch media reports about delayed flights, cars buried in white, streets full of slush, and to know beyond a doubt people will get towed, they will be abused, they will be turned upside down and money shook out of their pockets.

And, worst of all, many will assume "that's just the way it is" or tell themselves they were "stupid" for parking where they assumed, innocently, they could indeed park.

While Albany, NY Does The Right Thing, Rochester, NY Embraces Predatory Towing

Flickr.com Photo, Rochester, New York

Even while another city in the same state embraces humane, creative solutions to avoid excessive and predatory towing, the city of Rochester, New York recently went all out to add more misery to what was, already, a pretty dismal holiday season...

You can read the article by Sean Carroll of 13 WHAM right here, click here for article, including something I find to be inexplicable and just-plain-wrong editorializing: the reporter's remark that "it wasn't what the city wanted to do, but it was necessary..."

Was it? Then how does Albany manage to avoid it so effectively, click here?