Chicago, IL Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Chapter 9-92 separates two very different things the City can do to a parked vehicle. Under Section 9-92-030 the Police Department, the Department of Streets and Sanitation, and Department of Aviation employees at O'Hare may either tow a vehicle to a City pound or authorized garage, or simply relocate it to another legal parking space in the public way. The nine triggering circumstances are listed by letter, and they include a disabled vehicle whose driver is too injured to move it, an unattended vehicle blocking traffic, a vehicle occupying a parking meter space for more than 24 hours, a vehicle in a marked "tow zone," and towing incident to an arrest. Subsection (c) cross-references a long list of standing and parking sections, so a tow under Chapter 9-92 is tied to a specific numbered violation rather than an officer's general discretion.

Notice runs on a ten-day clock. Section 9-92-070(a) requires the police or streets and sanitation to try within ten days to learn from the Illinois Secretary of State who owns the vehicle and who else is legally entitled to possession, then mail a notice describing the vehicle. Currently registered vehicles get certified mail; unregistered ones get first class mail to the most recent registered address. Personal service within ten days, acknowledged in writing, substitutes for the mailing. If the owner cannot be identified at all, subsection (b) requires an immediate written report of the removal to the Secretary of State giving the description, the date, time and place towed from, the reason, and the address of the pound.

There are real fee exemptions in Section 9-92-080(b). No tow or storage fee at all may be assessed for a tow determined to be erroneous, or, subject to Police Department rules made with Streets and Sanitation, where the vehicle was stolen or hijacked when impounded and a report was timely filed. Where a court order or warrant keeps a vehicle impounded, no storage fee accrues during that continued hold. If the vehicle is ultimately disposed of under Section 9-92-100, no more than a single day of storage may be charged. Subsection (g) goes further: if the City nonsuits or an administrative law officer dismisses all of the alleged offenses behind the impoundment, the owner owes no penalty or fee at all and gets immediate release, even if the vehicle appeared on the immobilization list under Section 9-100-120.

Two release conditions catch people out. Section 9-92-080(e) bars release of any vehicle for operation on Chicago streets without a current state registration plate registered to that vehicle and liability insurance coverage, and where Chapter 3-56 requires it, a valid City wheel tax license emblem, the city sticker. Section 9-92-090 separately requires anyone collecting a vehicle from the City or from a private tow operator under contract to furnish evidence of identity and right of possession and to sign a receipt.

Hearings run on two different clocks. For an ordinary Section 9-92-030 tow, Section 2-14-135 gives the owner 30 days from the seizure to file a hearing request in person and in writing at the Department of Administrative Hearings. If the car is still in the pound, an administrative law officer must hear it within 48 hours excluding weekends and legal holidays; if the owner already paid and took the car, the hearing happens within 30 days. A finding that the vehicle was not subject to towing produces an order returning the vehicle and refunding the towing and storage fees already paid. Impoundments under the status-related and use-related offense sections listed in Section 2-14-132(a), which include fleeing police under Section 9-92-035, run instead on a 15-day preliminary hearing request and a separate administrative penalty, and Section 2-14-132(f) fixes their towing and storage fees at the same Chapter 9-92 amounts.