Towing ordinance amended

The Pekin City Council voted 5-to-2 to make one change to the city’s towing ordinance to protect individuals whose cars are towed because of a rare error by the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.

Pekin Police Department Deputy Chief Ted Miller said that the department has also modified its internal procedures regarding the ordinance over the last several months.

“When the officer himself has a concern whether or not the ordinance fits the spirit of the law, he or she would call over a supervisor,” he said. “Then they would go over again ... whether the owner or the interest holder of the vehicle is legally accountable for the conduct given rise to the impoundment ...

“We’re doing everything we can to make this as fair as fair can be.”

Called “Seizure and Impounding of Vehicles,” the ordinance establishes a $500 fine — in addition to any towing bills or storage fees charged by the impound yard — when anyone in a vehicle is arrested for possession or delivery of a controlled substance or drug paraphernalia, DUI, driving on a revoked or suspended license, or unlawful use of a weapon.

There have been occurrences when the Secretary of State’s Office, due to clerical or computer errors, has provided inaccurate driver’s license information to law enforcement officers during traffic stops and indicated that someone’s license is revoked or suspended. The error has caused a small number of impounds in which the driver was later proved to have a valid driver’s license, according to city documents.

Monday night’s amendment to the ordinance allows the police department to reimburse the owner for towing and storage fees, up to seven days, if such an error occurred.

Council member Barb Strand said that after initial concerns and several months’ consideration, she agrees with the ordinance and Monday’s change.

“When you look at the figures, every month, it’s almost entirely people who are driving on suspended and revoked licenses and people under suspicion of DUI,” she said. “And quite honestly, I don’t want those people on the street and I don’t think you do either.

“I think that the thing that we have put in place, that if somebody is wrongfully brought in, that yes, they should get not just their impound fee back but any other charges. And also the safeguard that the officers are doing internally ... I think those are covering the bases of the things I was concerned about.”

Council member Chad Schmidgall voted against the item and said that he wanted vehicle owners to have some recourse written into the ordinance giving them a way to recover fees from a person who caused the car to be impounded.

He said that drivers don’t have the right to — and shouldn’t have to — search passengers for contraband that could lead to the car to being impounded.

Miller said the internal procedures would allow the department to use its discretion not to impound a car if, for instance, a grandparent picked up a child whose friend, unbeknownst to the driver, held contraband in a pocket and that contraband was discovered by police during a traffic stop.

Council member Tom Blanchard said he aimed to make the ordinance “as fair as possible” and that he didn’t think Monday’s change did enough. In May, the council discussed a series of options, ranging from no change to amendments more substantial than what was proposed for Monday.

“The driver’s license issue was talked about at that meting as a concern of reimbursement for maybe all of about two minutes,” he said. “The true conversation was, anybody found innocent after having their cars towed would be reimbursed. Why should an innocent person have to pay anything?

“This whole thing is not making it more fair.”

Council member Laurie Barra said that everyone in town that she has spoken to about the ordinance said they do not want it changed further.

Mayor Rusty Dunn said any “innocent driver” clause in the ordinance would remove its “teeth.”

“If the driver has contraband somewhere in the vehicle that’s discovered somewhere during a stop, a driver (could) say I didn’t know there was a gun under the seat,” he said.

Dunn said he believes the review process already written into the ordinance is adequate.

Blanchard proposed an amendment to Monday’s item asking that the police procedure described by Miller be included in the city ordinance verbiage.

All other members of the council voted no, and several said that they did not want to dictate police procedure.

Blanchard said he didn’t think his amendment dictated police procedure because it was procedure already determined by the police department.

I haven't tried that the car towing police towed my car but I was being clamped.

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