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The two impound lots that hold the city’s abandoned cars are near capacity, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation says it’s resulting in a slowdown of the pace at which city contractors can pick up abandoned vehicles littering Portland’s streets.
“They’re running out of space,” says PBOT spokesperson Hannah Schafer.
Why? Because VIN inspections of cars in the lots aren’t happening swiftly enough—or at all.
The city’s transportation and police bureaus blame each other for the backlog. PBOT representatives tell WW that the Portland Police Bureau isn’t performing inspections of vehicle identification numbers. Those inspections are necessary in order for the tow company to legally scrap the car.
PPB has a number of officers who are qualified to do VIN inspections. But PPB spokesman Nathan Sheppard tells WW police are not to blame.
“[The bureau] is not responsible for doing VIN inspections for PBOT tows,” Sheppard says. “When staffing has allowed, or when the vehicle is a suspected stolen, PPB has assisted PBOT as needed. PPB obviously does not have the spare hands these days as all of our officers certified to do VIN inspections are officers who are expected to work their normal police jobs.”
Schafer concedes that PPB isn’t responsible, but says transportation officials had come to rely on its officers performing such inspections, and haven’t been able to find anyone else to do so.
The glut of cars sitting in impound lots means the city has delayed picking up at least 25 abandoned vehicles over the past two months. Schafer says that “doesn’t mean that those cars will never get picked up. It means they’ll get picked up at a later date.”
(Schafer adds that VIN inspections aren’t the sole factor in delayed pickups: “It‘s difficult to put a number on vehicles delayed solely due to VIN inspection delays as there may be other factors. When the towers’ lots reach a certain capacity, it takes a lot more maneuvering, and therefore time, to place the vehicle in storage and move on to the next tow request.”).
The VIN inspection is a pivotal step in the journey of an abandoned vehicle from roadside to scrapyard.
Once a vehicle is reported abandoned, it’s towed by one of the city’s two contractors tasked with such vehicles—Sergeant’s Towing and Speed’s Towing—to one of two impound lots owned by the companies. If the VIN is visible, the tower calls the car’s owner and the car must remain in a lot for at least 15 days, to allow the owner to pick it up.
But if the VIN isn’t visible on the car, a law enforcement official must conduct a VIN inspection before the tower can scrap it.
Upon that VIN inspection, one of two things happen: If the VIN is found, the owner is alerted. If the VIN is not found, the officer authorizes the tow company to take the car to a scrapyard. An inspection and paperwork is required for tow companies to scrap the car legally.
So the lack of VIN inspections means cars, RVs and even boats are piling up in the impound lots.
Devin Edwards, the president of Speed’s Towing, says his lot has been at capacity for nearly 15 months now, all because of the slowness of VIN inspections. There’s 10-15 RVs sitting in his lot awaiting VIN inceptions, 30-40 boats, and 40 cars.
“[It not only] delays, but completely halt[s] the disposal of those vehicles. We are not able to take a vehicle without a VIN to a wrecking yard, and a verbal, ‘it’s been inspected, and this is the VIN’ is not sufficient for the auto wreckers,” Edwards says.
Edwards says no VIN inspections on any of the vehicles in his tow lot have been done “in a very long time.”
The slow rate of inspections coincides with a steep increase in stolen vehicles over October and November, when record numbers were hit (1,031 in October and 1,140 in November)—and the bureau told WW earlier this month it is “exceedingly rare” that a patrol officer follows up on a stolen car investigation.
In 2017, WW reported that the city’s contracted tow companies were making big bucks by towing stolen vehicles—and that police officers weren’t calling the owners of recovered vehicles, resulting in most of those cars being towed and then the owner paying upwards of $400 to retrieve the car from an impound lot.
Policy was changed after WW’s reporting. Now officers must contact the owner via phone or letter if the car’s owner can be identified upon being found.
But the city’s inability to swiftly conduct VIN inspections for abandoned vehicles at tow lots presents a new issue: Towers aren’t able to move vehicles out of their lots to scrap yards, resulting in full lots that are impeding their ability to swiftly pick up abandoned vehicles on the sides of Portland streets.
“Eventually, if this continues, our lot will become so full of vehicles needing VIN checks we won’t be able to do any tows for PBOT,” says Edwards.
Schafer says PBOT has sought permission from the Department of Motor Vehicles to reassign two of its staff, who are former police officers, to take on a portion of those VIN inspections so cars can be cleared out of the lots quicker.
“Currently, under the DMV’s administrative rules, that inspector must be a law enforcement officer,” says Schafer. “The DMV is working with us to make adjustments to this rule, but that conversation is still ongoing.”
Schafer says the city is also looking to contract with two more tow companies to increase car capacity at additional lots.
The police bureau tells WW that the transportation agency has reached out to them about creating a contract with the bureau to allow for police officers to work overtime at the lots conducting VIN inspections. But the bureau says that’s unlikely to happen: “We have issues filling our available overtime positions as it is, so I don’t believe we’ll be able to accommodate that request.”
In a later statement after PBOT and PPB spoke, Sheppard said: “Although with current staffing challenges the Police Bureau is no longer able to shoulder the same workload it has in the past concerning VIN inspections, PPB and PBOT leadership continue to brainstorm ways to solve this growing issue.”
This article was published with support from the Jackson Foundation, whose mission is: “To promote the welfare of the public of the City of Portland or the State of Oregon, or both.”