Authorizing the Council Committee on Streets and Services to hold hearings to investigate the practice of "courtesy towing" by the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, and private towing companies.

Authorizing the Council Committee on Streets and Services to hold hearings to investigate the practice of “courtesy towing” by the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, and private towing companies. WHEREAS, Relocation towing, more commonly known as “courtesy towing,” is a practice where vehicles parked on streets that need to be closed for emergencies, construction, road maintenance, snow removal, or special events are towed away from their parking spot; and WHEREAS, Flaws in the current system have resulted in undocumented and untracked relocations of vehicles towed by government and private; and WHEREAS, In some circumstances vehicles are towed down the block or around the corner. However, in many cases, vehicles are towed as far as a mile away, inconveniencing vehicle owners who spend hours searching for their vehicles; and WHEREAS, There have been instances where legally parked vehicles have been courtesy towed to illegal parking spots, where they are then ticketed, forcing owners to contest the unfair tickets in court with no way to prove they did not willfully park their vehicles illegally; and WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Police Department’s policy is to enter handwritten logs of relocated vehicles faxed over to the police radio room into a searchable database, and rely on owners of vehicles to call 911 and report their vehicles missing; and WHEREAS, When there is no record of a courtesy towing, vehicle owners are encouraged to file stolen v…