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Guides and research: how towing works in Dallas–Fort Worth
Plain-language guides for people who were towed, and the audits, reports and court rulings behind them. Each summary is ours; follow the link to read the original.
Newest first. Government reports are public records; the others belong to their authors, so we link to them and do not post copies.
Dallas leaders re-evaluate towing practices in the city
Law journal article · FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth · · Covers: Dallas
Reports a City Council discussion of apartment-complex towing, including complaints about tows over small registration errors, a proposal to lengthen the 24-hour window before a car is treated as abandoned, and the City's figures of about 13,000 abandoned-vehicle warnings and 3,300 tows in 2024. Officials noted that apartment towing is mostly state-regulated.
Why it matters: Shows the local debate that came before Dallas's 2025 fee changes.
News report of a council discussion; no ordinance change on the 24-hour window was found.
Police-ordered tows could cost Fort Worth drivers more under new contract
Law journal article · Fort Worth Report · · Covers: Fort Worth
Explains the 2023 increase in police-tow fees, the City's contract with AutoReturn (about $1 million a year for an initial two years) and that the fee schedule had last changed in 2018. It reports AutoReturn dispatched over 101,000 tows under the previous contract, citing a City report.
Why it matters: Context for the $180 Fort Worth police-tow fee.
Audit · City of Fort Worth Department of Internal Audit · · Covers: Fort Worth
Found inaccurate inventory records, late deposits of auction proceeds and abandoned cars kept an average of 202 days before auction at the City's Brennan Avenue pound.
Why it matters: Shows how long unclaimed cars can sit, and why storage and auction timing matter.
Report · Dallas Police Department (briefing to the Public Safety Committee) · · Covers: Dallas
A short official overview of the Dallas Auto Pound: what it stores, staffing, release steps, the auction schedule, how damage claims work, five years of impound counts, and the 2010-2011 look at privatization.
Why it matters: The clearest public description of what happens at the Vilbig Road pound.
Study · City of Fort Worth Department of Internal Audit · · Covers: Fort Worth and seven Texas cities
A cost study of police tows using fuel, labor and equipment data and a survey of tow companies and Texas cities; it found the $135 fee reasonable for light and medium tows.
Why it matters: Explains how a Texas city decides what police tows should cost.
Court rulings about towing in Dallas–Fort Worth. A case decides the dispute in front of the court; whether it applies to a tow depends on the facts.
Cardinal Towing & Auto Repair, Inc. v. City of Bedford, 180 F.3d 686 (5th Cir.) (). Bedford, a Tarrant County city, replaced its police-tow rotation list with one contracted tow company. The Fifth Circuit held that choosing a single company for police-ordered tows was the city acting as a buyer of services, not regulation barred by federal motor-carrier law.
City of Columbus v. Ours Garage & Wrecker Service, Inc., 536 U.S. 424 (). The U.S. Supreme Court held that states may let cities make safety rules for tow trucks despite federal limits on regulating motor carriers' prices, routes and services.
VRC LLC v. City of Dallas, 460 F.3d 607 (5th Cir.) (). A private-property tow company challenged Dallas's tow-sign rule (§ 48A-36). The Fifth Circuit held the rule fell within the safety exception to federal preemption, pointing to the City's stated safety purposes such as reducing confrontations and false stolen-car reports.
City of Dallas v. VSC, LLC, 347 S.W.3d 231 (Tex.) (). Dallas police seized cars they believed were stolen from a licensed storage facility. The Texas Supreme Court held that because state law gave the facility a court process to claim its interest, it could not instead sue the City for a taking.