If you are a political nerd like me, and had the time, you may well have listened to the oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Colorado tossing a certain former president off the ballot, due to his being an insurrectionist. And you may recall I’ve oft ranted about my view SCOTUS will very likely rule, largely on technical grounds, he gets to stay on our ballots.

But I’m not going to talk about that.

Believe me, it is tempting. This is the only SCOTUS case Trump is likely to win, given within a short time (judicially speaking) that same court will very likely rule a president does not, in fact, have total and unconditional immunity from any actions he takes as president. I would not be at all surprised to see the first case be a 9-0 decision, and the latter case I predict will be 8-1 the other way, with Justice Clarence Thomas clinging to his perverse view of the Constitution.

But, again, I’m not going to talk about that.

Instead, I want to talk about people getting their cars towed.

There is a very good bill, in my view, coming down this legislative session, HR. 1051. This bill addresses predatory towing practices by far too many towing companies. Lots of towing companies are just fine and do important work. But some skulk around in the wee hours, usually patrolling the private roads owned by HOAs, retirement communities and such. And when a car is spotted that is, in the view of the driver, illegally parked, they swoop in, scoop up the car and the car owner faces hundreds of dollars to bail their vehicle out of car jail.

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For example, let me give you a hypothetical example. Let’s say a guy named Hal — no, wait, that’s too easy — a guy named Bidlack, yes, that works. Anyway, this Hal Bidlack guy has a lovely wife who was the chief support of an aging mother who, at that time, lived in a mobile home community in Colorado Springs. And let’s suppose in the pre-dawn hours that mother had a medical issue and the daughter rushed there to provide care.

Imagine the frustration when, roughly 30 minutes after arrival, that daughter brought her mom out to her car to take her to the ER, only to discover her car had been towed, as it was parked on the street after 10 p.m. There isn’t much traffic in that trailer park at 3 a.m., so we know the car wasn’t in anyone’s way. It just existed after 10 p.m., and so it was confiscated by the private tow company.

Aside from the family challenges that tow job generated in getting my mother-in-law to the ER, it cost me (wait, did I say it was me?) more than $400 in the morning to get the car back from that company’s private lot.

I learned, when I was a member of the board of directors of my local HOA that tow companies cannot tow from public streets for violations of covenants, such as the 10 p.m. rule. But lots and lots of people live on privately owned streets, though they may well not know it at the time. In those areas, the owners of the trailer park or other entity often contract with a towing company, and that allows these predatory towing companies to drive around, after 10 p.m. say, and just slide up and tow away any vehicle not parked in accordance with the local organization’s rules. The results are terrible inconveniences and high costs all too many cannot afford. The tow company gets a nice check, often with a kickback to the property owners.

Now, I’m not saying parking should be a free-for-all without rules and no one should ever be towed. But it seems reasonable to me that, for example, a tow driver should have to knock on a door before towing a car from out front, and to give the owner a chance to move the vehicle.

This bill arose when the wrong car got towed. State Sen. Julie Gonzales discovered her car had been towed in a way she was quite sure was illegal. How did she know? Well, back in 2022, she got a bill signed into law that banned non-consensual tows, and that required tow companies to offer payment plans, and the folks who took her car were not following, literally, her law. After she bailed her car out, and the company found out who she was and what law they were breaking, graciously refunded her money. Not the level of service most folks see.

Under the new proposed law, towing companies would not be allowed to patrol lots, cruise for cars and tow without discretion. There are also additional restrictions on the companies involved, requiring, among other things, tow company employees be fingerprinted and pass criminal background checks — as well as the property owners being responsible for the tow charges and any related storage charges. They could then presumably bill the car owner, if the owner was, in fact, guilty.

As a former military cop, I issued parking tickets and had cars towed when needed. But those tickets were never issued as part of a money-making enterprise. Rather, they were in response to irresponsible parking jobs that presented either a danger or were blocking needed access to facilities. The guy driving around the mobile home park at 3 a.m. is looking to make money, not to make our communities safer.

Again, tow companies are vital, and most are just fine. I often called for tows from accidents, for example, and that service was quite important. And I have no objection to tow companies making money; I am a capitalist after all. But I do oppose the unfettered and unregulated snatching of cars.

I’ve often written how most folks tend to focus their attention on national politics, when in fact the state and local governments have a far greater effect on our lives. This is a clear example of that, in that our state legislature is, I hope, soon to fix a wrong in our society. I hope HR 1051 passes.

Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.