Some Detroit auto theft victims are still being charged hefty fees to retrieve stolen vehicles from city-owned impound lots nearly two years after the Duggan administration announced reforms to eliminate the practice.
Mayor Mike Duggan unveiled the towing policy provision in December 2022 as part of a five-year effort to ease the financial burden for residents impacted by auto theft, improve transparency and target corrupt towing industry practices.
Under the reform, DPD is required to waive all towing and storage fees for stolen vehicles recovered from a city storage lot.
Formerly, the city didn’t have a uniform policy for where stolen vehicles were towed and couldn’t require private impound lots to waive fees for auto theft victims. But now, city-contracted tow firms only transport stolen vehicles to city-owned lots, and DPD absorbs the fees so victims of auto theft don’t have to.
But that’s not happening for some auto theft victims who told BridgeDetroit they were charged over $200 to retrieve their stolen vehicles as recently as last month.
A representative for the city of Detroit said this shouldn’t be the case. Corey McIssac, a spokesperson for Duggan, reiterated in an email last week to BridgeDetroit that auto theft victims are not to be charged by the city to retrieve their stolen vehicles.
“If someone has been mistakenly charged, they should reach out to the DPD Towing and Impound Unit at 313-596-8832,” she wrote.
In early August, about 20 people gathered outside the Detroit Police Department impound lot at Grand River Avenue and Oakman Boulevard, and many said they were there to recover their stolen vehicles. All of the residents BridgeDetroit spoke with at the city’s impound lot said they weren’t aware of a waiver auto theft victims can sign when they recover their vehicle indicating they’re experiencing financial hardship, such as not having auto insurance, to avoid paying fees.
DPD did not provide a copy of the hardship waiver when BridgeDetroit requested one but said vehicle owners can obtain them at any police department impound lot.
Detroit Police Chief James White has said that the “tow monitor,” Capt. Jason Adams, reviews hardship waivers and issues a recommendation on whether to waive towing and storage fees within 24 hours after a waiver is submitted to the department’s impound unit.
BridgeDetroit has spoken with over a dozen vehicle owners since Aug. 19 who were charged to recover stolen vehicles in the last year. All of them said they were told how much they’d have to pay to get their vehicle out of impound when DPD notified them it was recovered. The few victims who told BridgeDetroit they were aware of the hardship waiver said that DPD didn’t mention it was an option until they asked or expressed they were unable to pay.
Meant to build trust
The reforms were expected to restore public trust after a litany of towing scandals in recent years resulted in multiple indictments including several Detroit police officers and a City Council member who allegedly steered contracts and tows to companies that paid them bribes. The indictments were part of an FBI investigation known as “Operation Northern Hook,” which focused on corruption within the Detroit Police Department and other government agencies.
During a 2022 press conference announcing the reforms, Duggan cited hardships the average Detroiter encounters if they are the victim of auto theft, especially if they don’t have insurance.
“There’s something wrong with the fact that your car gets stolen and then you’re paying for your own car being stored,” the mayor said at the time. Duggan’s office on Tuesday deferred comment to DPD.
Detroiter Airika Tarleton faced many challenges when her 2019 Hyundai Elantra was stolen from her driveway on the city’s west side in broad daylight in January.
Although police located Tarleton’s vehicle within 24 hours, she said the process of retrieving it from the city’s Grand River impound lot took nearly four months. It ended with Tarleton’s bank repossessing the vehicle which had a negative impact on her credit score. The repossession, according to Tarleton, was the only way to get the vehicle back due to the fees charged by the impound lot.
Tarleton said she was certain she wasn’t supposed to be charged fees – $245 for towing and $15 for each day the car was stored at the city’s impound lot – when she showed up to recover it. But Tarleton contends an officer told her the city only waives fees for carjacking victims and insisted that the fees be paid before they would release the car.
She said she referenced media reports about the mayor’s announcement in her conversations with police officers in an attempt to get the fees waived but they never budged.
“You might as well go try to find your car yourself and they don’t even encourage you to do that,” said Tarleton, who suggested that the police department contact theft victims to retrieve their vehicle from the location where they are found instead of forcing people to go through the city’s process.
“Why wasn’t that an option? As opposed to putting me in a bind where you’re just going to take my vehicle somewhere else and tell me to go get it and pay a fine,” she said.
So far this year, 4,119 stolen vehicles have been recovered, according to DPD. As of Aug. 27, 5,485 vehicles were reported stolen in Detroit which is about a thousand less than last year.
DPD hasn’t provided BridgeDetroit with an explanation for why someone would be or has been charged the fees. However, DPD Cmdr. Michael Parish and Adams, the tow monitor, confirmed that anyone charged fees to recover a stolen vehicle can request a refund, even if their receipt says all payments are non-refundable.
Tarleton said an officer handed her a copy of the waiver, she signed it and was told to expect a phone call within 24-48 hours. Despite multiple attempts to reach DPD to verify the status of the waiver, Tarleton said she never received confirmation whether it was approved.
The city notifies the state of Michigan when a vehicle remains in impound for seven days without being claimed. The state notifies the owner that it’s considered “abandoned.” The vehicle is then sent to auction if the vehicle remains unclaimed within 20 days of the date on the notice.
Unsure of her options and worried that her car would be auctioned if she didn’t take action, Tarleton said she contacted her bank for assistance. She agreed to let the bank repossess it rather than let it go to auction, so neither Tarleton nor her lender would lose money on her investment.
“I just don’t want anybody else to have to go through that,” she said. “I want people to know what they’re potentially getting themselves into. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got insurance. “They’re going to charge you and that’s the unfortunate part.”
‘I want someone to explain’
Angela Malloy’s vehicle was stolen near the 7th precinct on the city’s east side in June. DPD notified her that it was recovered on Aug. 24, but Malloy said she was surprised to learn it would cost over $200 to get it out of the city’s impound yard on Grinnell Avenue.
Malloy said she was told she owed a $200 towing fee and another $15 for each day her vehicle sat in the Grinnell lot. She then took it upon herself to research towing fees which is when she learned about the 2022 reforms.
But it wasn’t until BridgeDetroit spoke with Malloy that she found out a hardship waiver existed. She hasn’t recovered her vehicle but anticipates paying over $400 to get it back later this week.
“When I go there, I want someone to explain to me why I’m paying money when someone stole something from me,” Malloy said.
The towing reforms still require insurance companies to pay towing and storage fees before a stolen car is released to owners. However, some insured drivers choose to pay the fees anyway to avoid delays in getting their car back as a result of auto insurance companies having to navigate Detroit’s complicated impound system.
Tarleton and Malloy are among dozens who have publicly shared their frustrations on social media about the city charging auto theft victims recovery fees
Towing and storage fees aren’t the only costs residents face. The impounded vehicles also have to be insured before owners can drive them off the lot, according to DPD.
DPD told BridgeDetroit that residents hire a private tow company to retrieve vehicles on their behalf if they don’t have auto insurance.
Auto insurance is a known problem in Detroit where the average premium is $5,300 – nearly double what Detroiters would pay if they lived in a suburban community.
For those who can afford it, comprehensive coverage offers protection in the event an insured vehicle is stolen and according to the city’s 2020 presentation on no-fault auto insurance reform, it accounts for 9% of Detroiter’s average insurance premium.
Despite insurance companies using crime to justify fluctuations in insurance rates, an investigation by Outlier Media found that crime hardly has any impact on the insurance rates that Detroiters are paying.
Towing rates are expected to increase for the first time in a decade after Detroit’s Tow Rate Commission approved a recommendation to adopt the Towing and Recovery Association of America’s standard guidelines. The commission requested a hearing this month before the City Council to present the proposed changes, ranging between $225 and $400 per hook-up depending on the size and weight of the vehicle being towed.