Towing Issues: Public Street Towing Law - California, rush hour traffic, citizen complaint

Question
My friends and I parked our cars on a public street in Los Angeles under a sign posted no parking after 10pm.  We were careful to come out right at 10:00, but the police were already there, had ticketed our cars, my car was completely hooked up to a tow truck, along with about a 1/2 dozen others, and some cars were already gone (towed).  We were all very upset.

They must have been laying in wait, & obviously started putting the cars on the tow before 10pm - it was literally 10:05pm as we argued with them.  We had to pay for cabs home, come up with $150.00 each in cash for the tow company, and retrieve the cars the next day.

Does the 1 hour rule apply here?  This just seems wrong.

Answer
Karen,

Thanks for your question, and I'm sorry it took a couple days to get back to you.

I've been in the towing industry for twenty plus years, and several times during my career I have been party to this type of parking enforcement.  

Impounds such as yours usually occur when there has been a recurring problem with parking violations at particular locations. A lot of times these locations are on major streets were rush hour traffic prohibits parking on one side in the morning and the other side in the afternoon.  There will always be a few cars parked in those locations each day, but then all of a sudden the parking gets enforced, and the police start towing. It sounds like yours was one of those times when the police agency decided to take a zero tolerance stance on this particular location.  There could have been an accident, on an earlier date, which was caused by illegally parked cars, or there could have been a citizen complaint.  It could have been for any number of reasons.  But the police don't usually burden themselves with this type of enforcement, unless they have had specific cause to do so.

Unfortunately, there is no one hour rule to protect you from immediate tow. Your also at the mercy of the officer's watch.  It's like getting clocked speeding, he is going by what he sees on his speedometer, not your's.

As a friendly warning, make sure you pay all parking citations you ever receive.  In California, your car can be impounded if it has accrued more than 5 unpaid parking citations.

Good luck,

Vern