Police step up impounding efforts
Saturday, May 3, 2003 10:00 PM PDT
The city will now charge a $75 administrative fee for seized vehicles
Tami Hart
Argus Observer
ONTARIO
Ontario drivers, beware.
The Ontario Police Department is stepping up its efforts to impound vehicles operated by drivers without a valid drivers license or those who fail to have their vehicle properly insured.
The city has also raised its administrative impound fee from $50 to $75.
According to Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee, the police department has been impounding vehicles since 1995. The administrative fee was imposed to cover the costs of the work created within the police department to accomplish that. Because of increasing costs, the department proposed raising that fee to $75 to cover the costs incurred.
"It was occupying a lot of our time, so much to the point that if you calculate the time it took for us to process the vehicles, the fee wasn't adequately covering what we were doing," Ontario Police Sgt. Jeff Milton said.
Although the department hopes to increase its revenues based on the new fee, Milton said it is not the sole reason the department has become more vigilant.
"Increasingly, we find drivers that are unlicensed or uninsured during our routine traffic stops. Because of those people, it has an impact on everything that results from traffic accidents, such as increased insurance rates," Milton said. "Everyone foots the bill for those who don't comply."
This is an effort, he said, to get those vehicles and those individuals off the street and force them to comply.
"Driving is a privilege. It's not a constitutional right. When you are given that privilege, you agreed to abide by the rules," Milton said. "This is our means of enforcing that privilege to drive."
If, during a routine traffic stop, it is discovered by the police officers the driver is unlicensed or uninsured, a local tow company is called to impound the vehicle.
Milton said the department uses a rotating list of local wrecking companies to impound the vehicles.
Richard Bunn, owner of Sunray Towing and Recovery, said area tow companies got together and provided their price list to Kee, who used the list to arrive at an average fee for the tow.
"It matters not if they call me or one of my competitors, that charge will be the same," Bunn said.
The police department then notifies, by mail, the owner of the impounded vehicle.
According to Milton, in many cases, the owner of the vehicle is not necessarily the driver, or, in other instances, the new owner of the vehicle has failed to have it re-registered in their name.
"We will not release a vehicle to anybody other than the registered owner or the lien holder. That can create problems if the person bought the vehicle from someone that doesn't live here anymore," Milton said.
After a person's car has been impounded, they must, first of all, pay the city's impound fee. They also have to present to the department all the required documents, such as proof of insurance, registration or a drivers license, depending on the violation.
At that point, the department accepts the $75 fee and issues a release form the individual must take to the towing company.
According to Bunn, the individual has to pay the towing company's storage fees, in addition to the city's impound fee.
Milton said as of April 30, the department has impounded 45 vehicles. This is compared to the two vehicles that were impounded in April 2002.
"We definitely were not as concentrated on this last year as we are now," Milton said.
Proof of the department's success will also be measured by a decrease in the amount of unlicensed and uninsured drivers in Ontario.
"We anticipate there will finally be a saturation point where some of this slows down because of this forced compliance," Milton said.
Tami Hart is a reporter for the Argus Observer. She can be contacted at (541) 889-5387, or by e-mail, TamiH@argusobserver.com.
