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What changed: towing updates in Chicago
New laws, rules and rates that affect people whose cars were towed, newest first. Each item is our own short summary with a link to the official source.
The City's Office of Inspector General audited how Streets and Sanitation runs the auto pounds (field work December 2023 to October 2024). It found incomplete digital records, a confusing pickup process, gaps in security and damage-claim tracking at contractor-run pounds, and some wrong tow and storage charges, including fees charged on stolen cars. The department said it has fixed some issues and plans others.
State law: tow lots can hold fewer personal items for the bill
Public Act 104-133 (SB 2040), effective January 1, 2026, changed the list of belongings a private-property relocator cannot keep for its bill. It now includes child car seats, glasses, food, medicine, medical devices, IDs, cash, cards, checkbooks, wallets and purses, and college textbooks. The act also gives the Illinois Commerce Commission police new tools against unregistered crash-scene tow trucks.
In December 2025 the City Council raised the City impound fees in Municipal Code section 9-92-080: towing went from $150 to $250 ($350 for 8,000 lbs. or more), and storage from $25 to $50 a day ($100 for heavier vehicles). Total storage charges are capped per vehicle, and no tow or storage fees apply to a car that was stolen when it was impounded or to a tow found to be erroneous.
In effect; the City's towing page lists the new amounts.
City Council passed new rules for crash and breakdown towing
On April 16, 2025 the City Council approved changes to Municipal Code chapter 4-227 for tows by City-licensed tow companies after crashes and breakdowns. The chapter covers access to belongings, release of the car, and a right for vehicle owners to sue a licensed tower that breaks it.
Federal court ruled for the City in a challenge to its impound program
On March 27, 2025 the federal district court in Chicago entered judgment for the City in Davis v. City of Chicago (No. 19-cv-3691), a 2019 class action challenging the City's vehicle impoundment program. The court later extended the plaintiffs' deadline to appeal to May 28, 2025.
In Lintzeris v. City of Chicago, 2023 IL 127547, the Illinois Supreme Court held that the City could use its home-rule power to charge administrative penalties to owners of cars impounded under the Vehicle Impoundment Program, and that state law did not preempt the ordinance.
On July 22, 2020 the City Council lowered many impound penalties, capped storage fees at $1,000 per car, stopped charging storage while a car is held for a police investigation or a forfeiture decision, ended impounds for several offenses such as loud music and fireworks for personal use, and added an innocent-owner defense.
Adopted July 22, 2020. The storage cap was later changed (see December 2025).