(A) Members of the Police Department are authorized to remove a vehicle from a street or highway to the nearest garage or other place of safety, or to a garage or parking lot designated or maintained by the Police Department or otherwise maintained by the city, under the following circumstances:
(1) When a vehicle upon a roadway is so disabled as to constitute an obstruction to traffic and the person in charge of the vehicle is, by reason of physical injury, incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide for its custody or removal;
(2) When any vehicle is left unattended upon a street and is so parked illegally as to constitute a definite hazard or obstruction to the normal movement of traffic; or
(3) When any vehicle is left unattended upon a street and is so parked illegally as to constitute a definite obstruction to employees of the city engaged in cleaning the street upon which the vehicle is illegally parked, or when any vehicle is illegally parked and constitutes an obstruction to access by city employees for city purposes.
(B) If a non-resident of the city has failed on more than one occasion to comply with notice attached to an illegally parked vehicle owned by him or her, and warrants have been issued for his or her arrest, but not served because of his or her absence, the police are authorized to impound his or her vehicle as provided in this section, when such vehicle is next found left unattended upon a street and illegally parked.
(C) Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street as authorized in this section and the officer knows or is able to ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle the name and address of the owner, such officer shall immediately give or cause to be given notice in writing to such owner of the fact of such removal and the reasons for the removal and of the place to which such vehicle has been removed. If any such vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy of such notice shall be given to the proprietor of such garage.
(D) Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street under this section and does not know and is not able to ascertain the name of the owner, or for any other reason is unable to give the notice to the owner as provided, and if the vehicle is not returned to the owner within a period of three days, the officer shall immediately send or cause to be sent a written report of such removal by mail to the state’s Department of Transportation. Such notice shall include: a complete description of the vehicle; the date, time and place from which removed; the reasons for such removal; and the name of the garage or place where the vehicle is stored.
(E) If a vehicle is removed from a street under this section, the owner of the vehicle shall pay, in addition to the fine, if any, assessed against him or her, reasonable costs incurred in removing the vehicle from the street and reasonable storage for the time the vehicle is stored in a garage or parking lot.
(2012 Code, § 84-176)
Statutory reference:
Removal of unlawfully stopped vehicle, see Tex. Transportation Code § 545.305