Crime & Safety
Baldwin Park School District Approves Vehicle Impound Fee Policy
The Baldwin Park Unified School District approved a resolution to enable their Police to asses impound fees for car impounded.
The Baldwin Park Unified School District at their Tuesday July 17 meeting passed by a 4-1 vote a resolution to allow the School Police Department the authorization to assess vehicle impound fees for the processing of documentation necessary to release vehicles from impound yards.
Under the proposed policy the school police department would assess a vehicle impound fee of $140 for DUI and 30-day impounds, and a fee of $100 for other violation impounds.
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Jill Poe, Captain of the Baldwin Park School District Police, told the board the School District was doing the work of impounding cars, but the city reaped the financial benefits.
According to information made public by the city, the administrative fee in Baldwin Park for a 30 day impound/stored vehicle is $114.24 as of today. The release fee for a DUI Impound/stored vehicle is $250.00.
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Lieutenant David Reynoso of the Baldwin Park Police Department said he had no comment on how the proposed school vehicle impound release fee would affect the city’s current vehicle release procedures. “I absolutely have no comment on that,” he said.
The Baldwin Park Police has a policy to impound the vehicle from an unlicensed driver but only for one day.
Reynoso, who heads the department’s Communications Bureau, said he was uncertain how the proposal would impact current procedures at the city’s Records Bureau, which among other duties processes the reports on impounded vehicles, handles all storage, and issues the release of the vehicles.
“Right now I just don’t know,” said Reynoso.
In her report to the board, Poe said departmental resources have grown substantially, requiring “significant aggregate amounts of time from sworn and non-sworn personnel.”
Poe indicated for the department, demands of personnel in association with the investigation, impound and release of suspected violator vehicles is a specific service that has attained recovery fee status.
Board Member Hugo Tzec was the dissenting vote, who expressed concerns over how the policy would impact the community. “There are some things I’m not willing to support,” said Tzec.
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