Bridgeport, CT Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Impoundment in Bridgeport runs through Chapter 10.24 of the municipal code, and the pound itself is a creature of the board of police commissioners: under Section 10.24.010 the board designates one or more motor vehicle pounds, which must be public storage garages or other places it approves, and no garage can be designated until its operator files evidence of insurance adequate to protect the city against damage claims arising from the towing or storage of an impounded vehicle. Section 10.24.020 limits routine tow-away to areas the board has established as towaway zones and posted with signs saying so, with two exceptions that need no zone designation at all: blocking a driveway, and parking within ten feet of a fire hydrant.

The scofflaw threshold is the number most Bridgeport drivers meet first. Section 10.24.030 makes any vehicle whose owner owes delinquent parking fines or penalties totalling $100 or more subject to towing and impoundment by order of the police department, or to immobilization by an officer, whenever it is found on a city street, on property the city leases or controls, or in any public parking area. A booted or impounded vehicle carries a $25 administrative fee on top of the past-due fines and the towing charge. The immobilizing device must be one that will not damage the vehicle unless the vehicle is moved while it is fitted, and the officer must place a conspicuous notice warning that moving the car may damage it. Vehicles properly displaying a current Connecticut disability plate or placard, or a disabled veteran plate under General Statutes Sections 14-253a and 14-254, are exempt from the chapter.

Notice is on a 24-hour clock. Section 10.24.040 provides that unless the owner has repossessed the vehicle within 24 hours of the tow, immobilization or removal, the police department shall notify the owner by certified mail, return receipt, telling them the vehicle was taken, where it can be recovered and the conditions of release. Separately, Section 10.20.090(D) puts a duty on the tow operator itself to give the owner or operator written notice of the vehicle's location and the charges to date within 72 hours of towing and storage, and to furnish proof of that notice to the chief of police on demand.

Release is governed by Sections 10.24.050 and 10.24.060. Before repossessing, the owner or an agent must pay the police department the cost of towing or removal, the cost of storage for each day or part of a day beyond the first 24 hours, and all sums legally due to the city for unpaid parking tickets and fines standing against the vehicle. Nothing is handed over until the claimant establishes identity and right to possession and signs a receipt. Bridgeport sets no dollar rate of its own for the tow: Section 10.20.140 caps fees for towing and storing at the rates set by the state Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, requires those approved rates to be posted per DMV regulation, and adds a $25 per tow administrative fee that the operator collects for the city and remits within ten days. Section 10.20.050(E) requires listed towers to accept at least one major credit card, and Section 10.20.090(A) requires them to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for release of vehicles at no additional cost to the owner. Where a car goes first to the police garage for evidence processing and then to the operator's lot, Section 10.20.220(D) allows only a single hook-up and tow charge, and storage does not begin to accrue until the vehicle has been on the operator's premises more than eight hours. Vehicles held on a police hold are stored at a nominal $5 per day under Section 10.20.210(A).

One caution about the text. Section 10.24.070 still carries a $5 fine and a storage cap of $1 per day for each day or part of a day, both inherited from the city's prior code, and Section 10.24.090 still refers protests to the "state circuit court." Read those figures and that forum as dated survivals rather than as current charges; the operative rate cap is the DMV schedule that Section 10.20.140 points to.