A new San Diego policy approved Tuesday aims to protect low-income residents by softening the penalty for expired car registrations from towing the car away to simply issuing a citation.<\/p>\n
But Police Chief Scott Wahl, who has the legal discretion to honor or ignore the new City Council policy, said after the council\u2019s vote that he has concerns about the policy\u2019s potential effects on community safety.<\/p>\n
Wahl also said that if he decides to move forward with the new policy there would still be a delay, because he contends the shift in police procedure would require him to engage the police labor union in negotiations.<\/p>\n
The new policy was prompted by a 2022 city audit that showed the Police Department\u2019s towing program appears to be disproportionately hurting low-income people and other vulnerable groups.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people in San Diego get their cars towed each year for expired registrations and then can\u2019t afford to pay the accumulating fines, prompting the city to sell their car at auction, the audit found.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a first-generation college student drops out of school because the city took his car and sold it because the registration was overdue, it is obvious to me that the system is not working,\u201d said Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who spearheaded the policy change.<\/p>\n
\u201cYear after year, this hurts thousands of our residents \u2014 primarily the poor,\u201d Whitburn said. \u201cIt is the very definition of a structural inequity, an institutional practice that perpetuates poverty. This will correct an injustice that has damaged too many lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how poor people are treated in this country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wahl said he has doubts the council has landed on the best solution to what it calls \u201cpoverty\u201d tows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I understand the intent behind this policy change, I continue to have concerns about this approach,\u201d Wahl said by email. \u201cKeeping a vehicle properly registered is a basic responsibility of owning a car, and an important state requirement. The ability to tow vehicles that have long been unregistered is an important tool that officers use to keep our roadways safe and taking that tool away would have unintended consequences for the communities we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the new policy was an ordinance or a municipal code change, Wahl would not have the discretion to honor or ignore it. But it\u2019s only a council policy because Whitburn said he couldn\u2019t legally pursue anything stronger.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because state law gives cities the power to tow cars when the registration expired more than six months ago. While cities aren\u2019t required to tow in such instances, a city can\u2019t have an ordinance mandating something that contradicts state law, Whitburn said.<\/p>\n
Deputy City Attorney Bret Bartolotta confirmed that Wahl, and his boss Mayor Todd Gloria, are not required to abide by the new council policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cA council policy may express the policy objectives of the council, but \u2014 under the City Charter \u2014 the mayor and the chief of police are charged with directing the Police Department operations and the enforcement of state law related to towing,\u201d Bartolotta said.<\/p>\n
Wahl said his decision isn\u2019t final. He said the department will evaluate how implementing the policy would affect its operations.<\/p>\n
The council approved the policy change 7-1 after a spirited debate.<\/p>\n
Some community leaders suggested the council should go further and eliminate towing for violations of the 72-hour street parking rule.<\/p>\n
Others said ceasing to tow for expired registrations would bring lawlessness to San Diego\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n
Whitburn stressed that his proposal would soften only enforcement of expired registrations, not rules against abandoning cars or living inside vehicles.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Jennifer Campbell cast the lone \u201cno\u201d vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this will give people the opportunity to leave their car forever unregistered. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a good idea,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s illegal under state law and we shouldn\u2019t approve of illegalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitburn said he will be watching Wahl closely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope we insist that the Police Department respect the will of the City Council,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a tradition in this city of following council policies. I will be paying very close attention to how this council policy is followed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Hanau, the city auditor, said Tuesday that the new council policy \u201caligns with our audit and recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new San Diego policy approved Tuesday aims to protect low-income residents by softening the penalty for expired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[138,181,23,100,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-465213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}