Unbelievable!! Parking Officers in Los Angeles are now requesting towing your vehicle before it is in violation of posted signs.

1. Can you believe this really happened?
LA Parking is going too far!
I could not believe it when I picked up my car from impoundment and realized that the parking officer requested to tow
my car before it was in violation of posted signs!! LA parking officers are really going too far now.
Circumstances: The streets around my office generally have “no-overnight” restrictions, meaning that vehicles cannot
be parked overnight, with the vast majority of the no-overnight spots restricted between the hours of 11:00pm and
6:00am. Parking overnight will result in a parking ticket but not in towing away. However, there is one small section
with parking restricted past 10:00pm and subject to towing. Unfortunately, on the morning of December 30th
2013,
when I parked my car to go to work, I hadn’t noticed those “unusual” restrictions on that block earlier (no-parking +
towing) and honestly I was not planning to have a 13 hr workday. On, that cold night of December 30th
, I went looking
for my car and I could not find it, my stomach dropped. I called the police and confirmed that my car had, in fact, been
towed as a result of this violation. I do agree that my car should not have been parked there after 10:00pm and, if in
violation, I deserved a parking ticket and the car to be towed.
Ticketing and towing: Parking Officer Bailey was patrolling the area that night. He drove by the block where my car was
parked around 9:45-9:50pm. He noticed my car parked in the section with “after 10pm” towing restriction. It was not
10:00pm yet, but Officer Bailey decided to request my car to be towed anyway because, according to him, “there was no
sign of the driver coming back.” Officer Bailey called the towing truck and completed the towing request at 9:58pm (as
shown in the towing receipt under “Dispatch Time”). After requesting towing, the Officer drove around the block to
come back and ticket my car at 10:07pm. The towing truck arrived at 10:13pm to take my car. I went looking for my car
around 10:20pm, thus missing the towing truck for just a few minutes.
“Preemptive” towing request: I do agree that by the time I went looking for my car, it was already past the “restriction”
time and therefore it was legitimate to tow it. So why am I up in arms? When I received the tow receipt, I found that the
parking officer requested to tow my car prior to 10:00pm with the final dispatch order, which generally takes 5-10
minutes on the phone to process, issued by 9:58pm.
Requesting a hearing: Although my car was parked there at 10:13pm and thus deserved to be towed, I requested a
formal hearing to have my case reviewed. I believe Officer Bailey should have not taken the liberty to request towing a
vehicle before the restriction time and based on his estimation of the likelihood of the driver to come back or not. If the
Tow Truck was called at 10:07pm, the time the officer ticketed my car, I would have gotten there on time to move my
car.
Post-impound hearing: At the post-impound hearing, Traffic Officer Bailey testified that “he calls the tow trucks in
advance if he sees cars parked with no sign of people coming back [because] it takes them 10 or 15 minutes to arrive.” I
was wondering “what kind of signs of people coming back” this officer is looking for when he decides to request towing
a car.
What is coming next?: Officer Bailey requested to tow my car earlier because, according to his calculations, the tow
truck would take about 15 minutes to get there, thus they would arrive right on time to tow my car. What if I was parked
in a more remote area, where it may take 25-30 minutes to arrive on the scene, would Mr. Bailey request dispatch
around 9:30? It’s imperative to preserve the American ideal of “innocent until proven guilty.” When Mr. Bailey called for
a tow truck, my car was not in violation of any posted signs (dispatch time  9:58pm). It’s crucial that all of us – citizens
and officers – respect our city by staying within its laws, and not overstepping boundaries.
Receipts and letters attached for your verification.
Peace!