The Gainesville City Commissioner spent nearly three hours discussing roam towing and immobilization devices at its regular Thursday meeting and directed staff to return with options to cut down on the practices.
From March 1 through March 19, two local companies immobilized 667 vehicles. From March 1 through March 27, companies towed 126 vehicles through trespass towing—without the consent of the vehicle owner.
City Commissioners said the immobilizations and roam towing have become an issue and called it an unfair and predatory practice.
Mayor Harvey Ward said he wants to see immobilizations completely banned from the Gainesville city limits. He said immobilizations, like booting a car, can be done within five minutes, allowing these companies to quickly earn money. That’s why towing is on the decline, he said.
“Regardless of why that person parked in that space, I feel like it’s unfair to just make them part of the cash machine,” Ward said in a Friday media availability. “So, I am hopeful that we will get an ordinance back that does not include the potential for immobilization.”
Why spend the extra effort to tow the vehicle when you can make as much money in less time by placing a boot?
Within trespass towing, there’s two subcategories: roam towing and call-in towing.
Call-in towing happens when a private property owner calls a company and asks them to tow an unauthorized vehicle. Roam towing happens when a private property owner enters a contract with a towing company that allows it to drive around their properties and tow anyone without permission (usually because they don’t have the proper decal or authorized license plate).
With roam towing, the property owner doesn’t need to authorize each tow; it’s up to the towing company. According to the city, there are 593 Gainesville entities with trespass tow or immobilization contracts.
Immobilization happens like the call-in or roam towing, but the vehicle remains in place, with the driver unable to use it until they pay the fee.
Commissioners said they wanted to either scale back the use of roam towing by setting hours and/or locations where it’s allowed or get rid of the practice altogether. Those 596 businesses with contracts would need to call each time they wanted a vehicle towed instead.
Commissioner Casey Willits said he’d support a structure similar to Tallahassee, where roam towing is allowed for apartment complexes between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., according to a city presentation. Or Gainesville could force only a call-in service.
“But I’m ready to be done with roam towing and roam immobilization,” Willits said. “Let’s see how it goes; let’s see how we survive it. Other communities magically survive without it. I suspect we can survive as well.”
Commissioner Bryan Eastman said there’s lots of gradations for enforcement and limits within roam towing and immobilizations. He said he’ll be curious to hear what businesses think because the options aren’t always too clear-cut. Because of volume, tow companies might say they can only immobilize and not tow everybody. Or some businesses might prefer immobilization because it seems nicer, he said.
Willits asked that the commission direct staff to return with two options: one that eliminates all roam towing and immobilizations and one that places more limits around it.
The commission also updates its rates for towing to match those of Alachua County. The city hadn’t updated the rates in over 10 years, and a towed vehicle will now cost $150 as the base rate, plus per-day fees.