Cincinnati, OH Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Sec. 513-1 lists fourteen grounds on which any Cincinnati police officer may impound and cause a vehicle to be towed, among them a vehicle parked in violation of law, one involved in an accident, one showing no currently valid license plates, one blocking ingress or egress to a street, alley, driveway, parking facility or loading facility, one in the possession of a physically arrested person, and one driven by a person under the influence. Two of those grounds carry a built in escape: under Sec. 513-1(b) a vehicle held only because the driver was arrested or was impaired must not be impounded if title or right to possession can be readily established at the stop, if the vehicle can be safely and legally parked where it sits, or if the driver is given a reasonable opportunity to arrange for someone else to take care of it.

Sec. 513-5 requires notice of impoundment within three days or as soon as practicable, delivered personally or by regular mail to the registered owner's last known address, and it enumerates eight things that notice must say: that the vehicle was taken into custody and stored, where it is stored, why it was impounded, the procedure for obtaining release, the basic charges for impoundment and storage, that the claimant may challenge the validity of the impoundment before a person designated by the chief of police, that failure to obtain release within twenty days after notice may cause the vehicle to be sold at public auction, and that City originated fees are waived for up to seven days when the vehicle had been reported stolen to the Cincinnati Police Department.

Sec. 513-7 then sets the money rules without setting the money. Beyond the biennial city manager schedule in subsection (a), a stolen vehicle draws only the fees owed under Sec. 513-3 for outstanding parking infractions or delinquent traffic citations during its first seven days in the lot, a vehicle disabled at the time of impoundment may be released free or at a reduced charge under a policy the chief of police writes into the Sec. 869-7 rules, and an owner pays nothing for the days a vehicle is held for unrelated law enforcement purposes. Sec. 513-9 gives the claimant an immediate review by a designee of the chief of police, who must investigate at once and issue a written decision within 48 hours, then a written appeal to the Office of Administrative Hearings filed within 48 hours of that decision along with a bond equal to the fees and fines due. If the impoundment is found improper, the vehicle is released and the fees and fines are waived outright.

This is the police tow track. Cincinnati sends these vehicles to a city controlled impound lot, and Sec. 869-9 requires every police tow to use an operator drawn from the police rotation list established under Sec. 869-5. Private property towing is a separate track that Cincinnati does not price: Sec. 869-11 says only that no person shall remove a vehicle from a private tow away zone except in accordance with Ohio Revised Code Section 4513.60, and the consumer rate maximums for those private removals come from state administrative rules rather than from Chapter 513. Do not read a state private tow rate ceiling as the amount Cincinnati charges at its own lot, because the city lot runs on the posted biennial schedule instead.