VENTURA : Police Cut Towing of Abandoned Vehicles

The Ventura Police Department halted its abandoned-vehicle towing program Tuesday due to budget constraints and will no longer confiscate vehicles left parked on public streets for more than 72 hours.

As a result, the department will not respond to the six to 10 complaints it receives per day about cars, motor homes, boats and trailers that are abandoned, stored or mothballed on city streets, said Lt. Steve Bowman, head of the special operations division.

Bowman said a civilian police officer assigned full time to investigate the complaints recently resigned and that the decision was made not to hire a replacement because the position will be eliminated in the city’s new budget beginning July 1.

“Word’s already filtered out,” Bowman said Tuesday.

“We’ve explained (the budget problem) to people when they called to make reports. . . . There have been some who were reluctant to accept that explanation.”

The department fielded 353 reports of abandoned vehicles in the first three months of 1992 and ordered 107 towed into storage.

Bowman said the department will continue to recover or tow stolen vehicles and those that pose health and safety risks, such as vehicles leaking gasoline, mounted on weak supports, blocking traffic or obscuring motorists’ vision at an intersection.

Police officers may do annual or periodic sweeps for “derelict cars that are obviously abandoned,” but only as schedules permit, Bowman said.