Midwest City, OK Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Midwest City handles non-consent towing through its police department rather than through a local wrecker licensing regime, and the operative rules sit in Chapter 24, Article II, Division 2 of the Code of Ordinances. Sec. 24-43 states the purpose plainly: impoundment is an enforcement procedure for removing traffic hazards, abating nuisances arising from traffic law violations, safeguarding recovered stolen vehicles, and protecting the property of arrested persons. Sec. 24-44(a) then lists ten circumstances in which officers may remove a vehicle from any street, highway, private property or public property. Among them are a derelict vehicle left on the public right-of-way for seventy-two (72) hours, a vehicle abandoned on the right-of-way more than three (3) days after it was first reported or observed, a license plate or temporary paper tag expired more than ninety (90) days, and a recovered stolen vehicle whose owner cannot be located or cannot effect removal within a reasonable time not to exceed one (1) hour.

The money side is split across two sections, and an owner pays under both. Sec. 24-44.1 makes the owner responsible for the actual cost the city paid to transport the vehicle, including actual towing expenses; a storage charge of nine dollars ($9.00) per day or any portion of a day, or the amount allowed by law charged by the city's designee; and all fees the city incurs, including lien filing fees. The section also fixes how days are counted, which is where storage bills usually surprise people: the day of receipt is the first day and the day of release is the last day, so a vehicle collected the morning after the tow has already accrued two days.

On top of those costs, Sec. 24-47(a) imposes a flat impound fee of one hundred fifty dollars ($150.00) as a condition of the written release order. That fee is expressly independent of any fines, costs or fees assessed from citations issued in connection with the vehicle, so a parking or driving citation is a separate bill. Sec. 24-47(b) creates a special account inside the police fund into which all impound fees are deposited, and the money may be spent on any law enforcement related expense. The current figure traces to Ord. No. 3302, adopted May 23, 2017.

Getting the vehicle back is a two-stop process. Under Sec. 24-44.1 the owner must first obtain authorization to release from the Midwest City Police Department, then pay the towing, storage and fee amounts to the vehicle and equipment manager or to the city's designee. Sec. 24-48 completes the loop: presenting the release order at the place of impoundment, together with payment or tender of payment of all impoundment costs and accrued storage charges due, entitles the person presenting it to obtain possession. Vehicles impounded under Sec. 24-44(a)(10), the no-insurance ground, carry an extra condition. The owner or someone the owner authorizes must show proof of valid security verification, a valid operator's license and valid vehicle tag registration before the police department will authorize release. The Code also narrows that ground itself: an officer may not rest probable cause solely on an inability to verify insurance through the online verification system.

Notice is narrower than owners often expect. Sec. 24-45 requires written notice of the removal, the reasons for it and the place the vehicle was taken, but only where an officer removes an unattended vehicle from a street or highway and knows or can ascertain the last-registered owner's name and address from the motor vehicle registration. Sec. 24-46 leaves the destination to the city manager or a designee, and Sec. 24-44.1 names the Midwest City Service Center as the default. Two release valves sit at the far ends of the process. The city manager or a designee may release the owner from part or all of the cost owed, to meet the best ends of justice or to expedite ongoing investigations. At the other end, if the owner fails to claim the vehicle within the time prescribed by law, the city manager or the city's designee is directed to institute proceedings to have the vehicle sold under the applicable statutes of the State of Oklahoma.

Midwest City publishes no towing rate schedule of its own, and that is a deliberate gap rather than an oversight. Chapter 44, titled Wrecker Permits, now contains a single operative sentence at Sec. 44-1: the City may contract with one (1) or more wrecker services which will provide some or all required towing needs for the City. Ord. No. 2525, adopted April 27, 1993, repealed the former permit provisions at Secs. 44-2 through 44-16, and the chapter's own state law reference points to 47 O.S. Section 951 et seq., under which the Oklahoma Corporation Commission licenses wreckers and sets maximum non-consent towing and storage rates statewide. That is why Sec. 24-44.1(2) states the $9.00 storage charge in the alternative, as that figure or the amount allowed by law charged by the city's designee: where a contracted wrecker holds the vehicle, the state ceiling governs the rate and the City's own number does not displace it.

Private property tows run on a signed complaint rather than on a call from a tow truck. Sec. 28-56 makes it an offense to enter privately owned or occupied real property with a vehicle without the owner or occupant's consent, except where the property is provided as public parking and is not restricted by signs or proper markings to customers only. Subsection (c) requires the owner or legal occupant to sign a verified complaint, which may name the registered owner where the driver is unknown, and subsection (d) then makes it the duty of the police department to cause the vehicle to be impounded and placed in storage. Storage fees charged against the vehicle must be paid before release, in addition to any fine assessed against the owner.