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Audits, reports, rules and contracts about towing in El Paso, each with a short summary in plain words and a link to the agency's own copy.
These are government documents. We link to the official copies. Summaries are ours; read the record itself before you rely on it.
Explains why EPPD tows cars, where they go (the City storage facility, open 24 hours), how to check if a car is there, and links the 2026 ordinance amending chapter 12.54.
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The page's link to the operator's facility page is out of date; use vmsolutions.com/el-paso/.
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Sets the limits on nonconsent tow fees ($100 / $350 / $450, dollies up to $25), free release before hook-up and half price after, the $20 city fees on police-ordered tows, the towing-fee study process, and the 2026 ban on uncalled tow trucks and soliciting at crash scenes. The chapter dates from 2002.
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Adds section 12.54.070, making it an offense to arrive at a crash scene to tow without being called by the police, owner, driver or insurer, to solicit towing or repair business for a damaged car on public streets, or to enter a scene without an officer's permission, and extends the up-to-$500 fine to these violations.
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The City's statement on the Justice Department case: an Army soldier's 2020 complaint started the federal investigation, the City began its own audit, it entered agreements with the Justice Department in October 2022, and it stopped auctions where the contractors had not followed proper procedures.
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The Justice Department alleged that the City and the two companies that ran its storage facility auctioned at least 176 servicemembers' vehicles without court orders. The page links the complaint, consent orders and settlement agreements: the City (policies, training, $20,000 penalty), one company ($57,935 to servicemembers, $24,980 penalty) and the other ($140,000, $20,000 penalty).
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The settlement agreement gives the filing date as February 20, 2023; the case page says February 2, 2023.
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Found an outdated operations manual, cars sold at auction before the 51 days the contract requires (5 of 26 sampled), no process to check whether owners were active-duty servicemembers before a sale, and a hold lot over capacity (422 cars in a 400-car lot, some held 3 to 8 years).
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Awarded a three-year revenue contract to run the City-owned storage facility at 11615 Railroad Drive, with projected gross revenue of $6.65 million over three years. Only one proposal was received. It notes the earlier contract awarded November 29, 2011 and its 2014 and 2016 extensions.
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The fuller study the Council asked for in 2017: a survey of 77 registered towing companies on their costs, a comparison of Texas city limits, and the recommendation to raise the incident-management tow limit to $100, which the Council adopted.
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Prepared after three towing companies asked for a higher limit. It gives El Paso's fee history ($70 before 2014, $81 from 2014), surveys Texas and nearby cities, reviews TDLR's 2012 statewide study, and recommends a CPI increase to $85.46.
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A written request form for a hearing on a towed or booted vehicle. The county's pages we checked do not state the filing fee, so ask the clerk.
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We are reviewing these before we post them: