Guides
Police-ordered tows: different tow, different rules
When an officer orders the tow, rotation lists and published program rates replace the free market. What changes, what doesn't.
When an officer orders the tow — a crash, an arrest, an abandoned vehicle — the free market leaves the room. The tower comes off a rotation list, and in the jurisdictions that publish them, program rates replace negotiated ones. New York City's police-program tows run $125/$140 plus a published daily storage rate. Texas storage facilities that accept vehicles around the clock must release around the clock.
What does not change: the itemized bill is still your right where the law says so, the storage clock still runs on published rules, and your belongings are still yours. What does change: the complaint goes to the agency that runs the rotation as well as to the regulator — a tower's rotation slot is recurring revenue, and agencies protect the list.
If the officer gave you a choice of tower, take it — Maryland's heavy-truck law writes the choice into statute (your own tower, if it can arrive within 30 minutes), and the same instinct is right everywhere: a tower you chose is a bill you can audit.
Start with the verdict: run the checker.