An acquaintance who used to run an auto shop in the Chicago area writes:
"'WBEZ's Ramos, using notes and data from several Illinois agencies and departments, says that during 2017, the city impounded 93,857 vehicles and sold about 24,000 of them.'
This is 93,857 people getting put thousands of dollars into unexpected debt. This is 24K people who have just lost their primary method of commuting to work. Every year. This figure also does not count vehicles seized via Civil asset forfeitrue where the CPD does not even have to prove a crime took place to steal your property.
"According to WBEZ's data analysis and reporting, driving with a suspended or revoked license is the most common offense cited for Chicago's impounding. And for many drivers without the resources to pay traffic fines, that can arise from accumulated ticket debt."
These are people that are not criminals. Chicago nickels and dimes drivers. In my experience, it can be difficult to find out exactly what you owe if you commit a traffic offense and who you need to pay it to. This is a matter of design because the city is incentivised to make things difficult enough that eventually, an opportunity will arise for them to impound your car. An impounded car will accrue impound fees in the high hundreds a day. The city will hold your car for 15 days before selling it.
"It's Chicago's poorer and minority populations that get socked by the impound racket."
The other key thing about this is that I used to help out with a friend's BHPH lot. This is a business which allows poor people to buy used cars on credit with payday loan interest levels. 25% APR is a typical figure. Aside from the credit risks that already arise from lending to poor people, this APR also has to account for the non-trivial danger of the CPD stealing this person's car for essentially bullshit reasons. So even if a poor person has a clean driving record and religiously pays all the city's many fees associated with owning a vehicle, they are faced with reduced access to consumer credit and higher costs to access mobility."
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a28776512/impounded-cars-chicago/
"'WBEZ's Ramos, using notes and data from several Illinois agencies and departments, says that during 2017, the city impounded 93,857 vehicles and sold about 24,000 of them.'
This is 93,857 people getting put thousands of dollars into unexpected debt. This is 24K people who have just lost their primary method of commuting to work. Every year. This figure also does not count vehicles seized via Civil asset forfeitrue where the CPD does not even have to prove a crime took place to steal your property.
"According to WBEZ's data analysis and reporting, driving with a suspended or revoked license is the most common offense cited for Chicago's impounding. And for many drivers without the resources to pay traffic fines, that can arise from accumulated ticket debt."
These are people that are not criminals. Chicago nickels and dimes drivers. In my experience, it can be difficult to find out exactly what you owe if you commit a traffic offense and who you need to pay it to. This is a matter of design because the city is incentivised to make things difficult enough that eventually, an opportunity will arise for them to impound your car. An impounded car will accrue impound fees in the high hundreds a day. The city will hold your car for 15 days before selling it.
"It's Chicago's poorer and minority populations that get socked by the impound racket."
The other key thing about this is that I used to help out with a friend's BHPH lot. This is a business which allows poor people to buy used cars on credit with payday loan interest levels. 25% APR is a typical figure. Aside from the credit risks that already arise from lending to poor people, this APR also has to account for the non-trivial danger of the CPD stealing this person's car for essentially bullshit reasons. So even if a poor person has a clean driving record and religiously pays all the city's many fees associated with owning a vehicle, they are faced with reduced access to consumer credit and higher costs to access mobility."
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a28776512/impounded-cars-chicago/