Colorado Springs is looking to make code changes that would allow police in the city to impound vehicles that are abandoned or have expired licenses.

The first discussion on the new ordinance took place during the Colorado Springs City Council work session on Monday morning. The proposal would rewrite the city’s illegal parking code to simplify some areas and expand the impounding ability, which city staff said would encourage compliance with the state vehicle registration laws.

The new ordinance would allow vehicles to be impounded if they are inoperable and left in a public right of way or if they are parked in public with invalid license plates.

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The current city rules allow Colorado Springs police to issue citations for missing and expired plates, but the department cannot impound a vehicle solely for a license issue. During a recent campaign to crack down on expired tags, the department issued 175 citations in one day.

City Chief of Staff Jamie Fabos said that one of the common complaints the city heard from residents was about vehicles that never faced a ticket or a penalty for traveling with expired plates. Fabos told the council the city had received 14,500 complaints about abandoned vehicles since 2022.

The ordinance changes would increase the threshold for an officer to initiate an impound for missing plates or a driver operating without a license, requiring the officer to have probable cause for a violation.

The proposed changes would provide the ability for Code Enforcement officers and Parking Enforcement Officers to initiate an impound when authorized by the police chief, which staff said could free up time for police to take other calls.

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“I think we would all agree it’s maybe not the highest priority for our sworn police officers,” Fabos said.

Another proposed rule would prevent people from moving their car a few inches or feet at a time to get around enforcement to parking time limits. The new definition would say that the vehicle must move at least 100 feet away to avoid being impounded.

The impounding rules will be up for a City Council vote on March 25 and April 8. Shantel Withrow, the city’s chief of prosecution, said the rules would take effect as soon as possible after the final vote.