When a person’s vehicle gets towed to an impound lot, the reason can range from parking at the North Shore Walgreens without shopping in the store to the day being one of the worst of a person’s life, like a car accident.
Getting a vehicle back after it has been towed differs between tows requested by private property owners and police, and the process could change in the future due to state legislation, according to Mark Shackleford, a district wrecker operator and the vice president of the Tennessee Tow Truck Association.
In the Modernization of Towing, Immobilization, and Oversight Normalization Act of 2025, the state required the Department of Revenue to create and implement an online platform that allows a police department or other user to input towed vehicle information for public notice, according to the state legislature’s website.
How to retrieve vehicles from Chattanooga impound lots
The bill required the department to begin the third-party procurement process no later than July 1, 2025, and implement the new web portal by July 1, 2026. However, the state website said an amendment extended the deadline for the new web portal to Oct. 1, 2026.