This website and the documents it makes are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
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.
Explains a 2025 bill that would have required cities that regulate nonconsent tow fees to study them every two years and adjust them within 30 days of the results. The bill did not pass.
Why it matters: Shows the debate over how often city tow limits like San Antonio's should be updated.
The exact date of the committee report is not shown on the analysis page; 2025 is the session year.
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Reports that the City Council approved a ten-year, roughly $9.8 million-a-year contract putting Vehicle Management Solutions in charge of SAPD towing, dispatch and impound, and that SAPD said its process now requires two notices and 30 days before a sale.
Why it matters: The only source we found so far on the 2025 contract; the council record still needs to be found.
News report only. We have not yet seen the council record or the contract.
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Reviewed how SAPD manages its tow-manager and impound-lot contracts during the first half of fiscal year 2023 and found no problems needing recommendations. Its background section is the clearest public account of the system's size: 55,464 police-directed tows and 36,856 impounds in fiscal year 2022.
Why it matters: Explains who tows for SAPD, what the contract rates were and where the money from auctions goes.
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Announces the statewide maximums in force from November 1, 2021, and lists the previous ones, for tows, drop charges, daily storage and impoundment.
Why it matters: The state limits that apply alongside San Antonio's lower city limits.
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Reports the Justice Department's settlement with the City over servicemembers' cars sold at the Growdon lot without court orders between 2011 and 2019, including one owner whose car was auctioned in 2016 while she was deployed.
Why it matters: Shows why owners in the military have extra federal protection before a towed car can be sold.
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Reported that SAPD's own review found cars sold at the Growdon lot in March and April 2017 without proof that owners got the two notices state law requires, shortly before the Council picked a new lot operator. The article attributes the findings to SAPD's contract staff.
Why it matters: Background on why the impound-lot contract changed in 2017.
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El Paso police surveyed Texas cities' maximum police-tow fees while studying its own; it lists San Antonio at $177, Austin $150, Houston $151, Fort Worth $135 and Dallas $121 for a light tow at the time.
Why it matters: A rare side-by-side of Texas city tow limits from an official source.
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Fort Worth's auditors tested whether police-tow fees covered towing companies' costs, using fuel, labor and equipment data and a survey of Texas cities. It found the light and medium fee reasonable.
Why it matters: Shows the method Texas cities use to set police-tow fees, the same kind of study San Antonio's Code allows (ยง 19-403).
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Court rulings about towing in San Antonio. A case decides the dispute in front of the court; whether it applies to a tow depends on the facts.
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