Drivers overcharged, police accountant negligent in car towing rip-off, audit shows | Opinion

For the past year or so, I’ve been warning you that Wichita police-initiated tows are a ripoff.

Now, there’s hard proof.

About a third of the time, towing companies contracted to the city have been padding their bills by overcharging motorists in a variety of ways, according to a recently completed audit that was ordered by the City Council in March. And that’s on top of the already generous fees they’re actually allowed to charge.

The audit examined 1,103 police-initiated tows from January 2022 to March 2023. In 366 of those, car owners or the city were overbilled.

“In total, there are questionable costs of $5,688.06 for the invoices assessed,” the audit concluded.

There’s another word for “questionable” charges: theft — theft from the taxpayers and theft from accident victims whose cars are removed and stored to clear the streets.

Overcharges ran through every phase of the towing business: inflated basic service charges, charging for more miles than the car was actually towed, charges for services that were never provided, miscalculated storage fees, miscounted days of storage and illegitimate auction fees.

The audit also showed the system was badly mismanaged by the Police Department.

Towing transactions were supposed to have been reviewed on a monthly basis by a police accountant to ensure the charges were legitimate.

“The accountant in WPD was not reviewing the monthly reports, nor the invoices submitted by the tow companies,” the audit report said. “This employee is also no longer an employee of the City of Wichita.”

Not only were the invoices not being reviewed for accuracy, a lot of them couldn’t even be found.

“Most of the monthly reports and invoices were not located in the employee’s office or on their PC,” the report said. “They had to be requested from the tow companies again. Therefore, there were no controls that could be evaluated.”

The audit report rated the system as “needs improvement.”

I’d have rated it “pathetic.”

To the city’s credit, staff has taken steps to get the required reviews done going forward, and those who the audit identified as being scammed have received or are getting refunds.

Props to Mayor Brandon Whipple, who asked for the audit after columns I wrote objected to the cartel-style pricing that motorists face in this town when their car is towed — and to the rest of the City Council, who unanimously supported his motion.

The mayor said it was the first time he knows of that an internal audit was conducted on orders of the City Council. The results indicate they ought to do that more often.

“I was relieved that we were able to find (the overcharges) and that it could be called to our attention so we could correct it,” he said.

It’s a good start, but there’s still the problem that towing and storage charges are simply too high. The tow companies have made a mockery of competitive bidding by organizing in an association that can more or less fix prices.

Even allowable charges add up fast: $120-135 basic tow fee, $5 a mile, $40-$45 a day for storage, $50 for title verification fees, $30 to the city for calling the wrecker, $30 lot fee (whatever that is) plus a holy host of other fees, that may or may not apply to your tow depending on the circumstances.

Lest you think this couldn’t happen to you, there are lots of reasons in city code why your car could wind up in car jail:

▪ If you’re in an accident and are hurt, or the car’s not drivable.

▪ If your car breaks down on the side of the street and you don’t have the money to fix it immediately.

▪ If your car’s parked on the street and isn’t moved every 48 hours to another block or the other side of the street.

▪ If you get arrested while driving, even if you’re never charged with a crime or are found innocent, you still have to pay towing and storage fees.

About a third of the people who get entangled in the police towing system lose their cars, because they can’t afford the egregious charges.

Those cars are sold at auction; the tow company gets most of the money, but the city gets a piece of the cake.

In May of 2022, the council approved a payment plan to help people to get their cars out of hock and pay towing and storage fees back through the city over time.

It’s a good idea and theoretically could be helping a lot of people. But the rules are so tight that almost nobody’s benefiting. As of March, 26 car owners had applied and only three were approved.

“I was incredibly disappointed that all the work that we did to try to help folks when it comes to these fees, so they can get their car back and get back to work . . . all that work we did that year, it wasn’t implemented properly,” Whipple said. “It’s incredibly disheartening as a policy-maker.”

About a year ago, I told you the story of Vernette Chance, who got in a minor accident downtown and got hit for $515 in fees for an eight-mile tow and four days of storage.

It was an unnecessary expense because she’s a member of the AAA Auto Club and could have had her car towed to her driveway for free — where it’s been sitting ever since she got it out of impound-lot hell.

A few weeks ago, she sent me this update: “I received a $4 refund check from the car towing company today. Now I can take a cruise.”

So you tell me this system isn’t broken.

Trouble with towing

The following lists problems found by a City of Wichita audit of various towing companies that handle accidents and impoundments through the city Police Department.

Arrow Towing — Five significant types of findings related to improper lot fees charged, incorrect mileage charged, incorrect standard tow charges, incorrect storage fees for holidays, and incorrect calculation of days stored on lot.

Bud Roat Towing — Four significant types of findings related to not having release dates on invoices which resulted in not being able to recalculate storage costs, incorrect mileage charged, incorrect fees for a standard tow, and charges on an invoice not aligning with the services rendered.

Kidd’s Towing — Five significant types of findings related to auction fees being charged which are unallowable per the fee schedule, incorrect mileage charged, incorrect standard tow charges, incorrect storage fee charges, and incorrect storage fees for holidays.

Tow All — Five significant types of findings related to incorrect types of charges (medium tow – not addressed in the contract), incorrect mileage per tow, incorrect hook up charges, charges on an invoice not aligning with services rendered, and auction fees charged which are not allowed per contract.

Ken’s Auto Towing — No monthly reports with invoices were provided for testing and no invoices could be located internally for January 2022 – March 2022. For the invoices that were pulled from the City’s financial system, there were issues noted with mileage charges.

Reliable Towing — No monthly reports with invoices were provided for testing and none could be found internally. No issues were noted on the invoices tested from the financial system.

Tow Service — Two significant types of findings related to not having a release date so the storage fees could be recalculated, incorrect standard tow charges.

Wichita Towing & Auto Recovery — Monthly reports were not provided by the company for testing and based on the payments to Wichita Towing & Auto Recovery assessed, the invoices were either submitted late (paid in 2023 for dates in 2021 and 2022), or they were processed internally way after receipt.

Source: City of Wichita audit report