Burleson, TX Business Licensing & Operations: Towing Companies (2026)

Article III of Chapter 90 of the Burleson Code governs vehicle wrecker service. Section 90-81 defines a police non-consent tow as the towing of a vehicle without the prearranged knowledge and consent of its owner or operator. The examples printed are a driver incapacitated after an accident, a driver who has been arrested, a vehicle removed from public property without pre-notification of the owner, and seizures. A consent tow is a tow at the request of the owner or operator. The chief of police, or a designated representative, administers the article.

Section 90-82(a) makes it an offense to operate, or to employ another to drive or operate, a wrecker over any street in the city for a police non-consent tow, except as the article provides. Section 90-82(b) lists four affirmative defenses: a non-resident wrecker operator moving a vehicle from outside the city to a destination in the city, a non-resident operator traversing the city to a destination outside it, a tow at the request of the vehicle's owner or operator, and a tow on the private property of another with the consent of the vehicle's owner or operator or the property owner.

Section 90-83 is how the city fills the non-consent work. The city can contract with one or more wrecker companies for city-owned vehicles and for the towing or impoundment of any vehicle made necessary by its police and governmental functions. With more than one contract, companies are called on a rotation basis, and if a company is called and unavailable the next company on the list is called. An agreement can set rate limits, but those are contractual obligations: failure to comply is not punishable as a violation of the ordinance and instead lets the city declare a default and terminate the agreement. The city can use any wrecker when the contracted company cannot respond as required, in an emergency, or when the chief of police considers it necessary, and a report goes to the chief of police.