Starting soon, people towed in Champaign will have to pay extra to get their vehicle back.
The Champaign City Council recently approved a $25 towing fee that goes into effect Thursday.
The council approved the fee in hopes that the police department will recover the cost of processing each tow, said Champaign’s Deputy Police Chief Troy Daniels.
Daniels said the police department has been losing money processing tows for years, but with the economic downturn last year, the city was forced to find new sources of revenue.
The fee applies to vehicles removed from both public and private property. The $25 will be in addition to whatever fee is charged by the towing company.
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Jim Hampton, owner of Tatman’s Towing, 727 S. Mattis Ave. in Champaign, said his business charges $105 for any towed vehicle.
Champaign City Council member Michael La Due, who represents part of campus, was the lone opponent of the fee. He said more cars are towed in his district than most other parts of the city, so the negative aspect of the fee would affect more people.
“I see these tow trucks ripping up and down the street like sharks patrolling a coral reef, (looking) for little fish to pick off,” La Due said.
La Due said many people from out of town are unfamiliar with the parking zones and penalizing them is unfair.
“What reputation does that create for the University of Illinois campus and the city of Champaign as a host?” La Due said. “Another $25 headache on top of what’s already expensive was not something I could support.”
Hampton said his business only tows vehicles when contacted by the police or a private property owner. He said searching for cars to tow is both illegal and unethical for towing companies.
“We don’t just drive around looking for unexpected people to tow,” said Hampton, whose company relocates anywhere between one and 25 cars per day. “It’s just something that I don’t do.”
La Due said he predicts the attitude around campus regarding the fee will be negative and resentful.
Lisa Vinh, a sophomore in AHS, said the fee was “absurd.”
Graduate student and Urbana resident Larry Smith said the police are going too far to make money.
“It’s ridiculous. They’re total pirates. They’ll do whatever they can to make a profit.”
But Champaign police said the fee was necessary.
“We understand that people don’t want to pay more money, clearly that’s something we’re sensitive to,” Daniels said. “But we also understand that their vehicles being towed is resulting in us expending tax dollars.”
