‘This won’t be tolerated’: New legislation to target predatory towing

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Predatory towing is impacting drivers across the metro and now city leaders are making sure steps are taken to change that.

Just last week, a mother-son duo was charged in both Jackson and Platte counties.

Donald Adamson owns Metro Tow and Transport, while his mother, Lanette, is an employee.

They’re accused of towing cars without permission and making it unnecessarily difficult to get them back.

KCPD said they have been receiving complaints about the company for years.

On Monday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas took to Facebook.

“Predatory towing is a serious crime in our community, costing Kansas Citians hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars in fees with, until now, too little redress,” Lucas wrote. “Working now on legislation to ensure stronger penalties and enforcement.”

The mayor said predatory towing is not just a nuisance, it’s a crime and it’s gone unregulated in the city for too long.

Lucas said there’s been conversations within the city about how to stop this issue and it will not be tolerated.

“These sorts of things won’t be tolerated long term, and it shouldn’t be one-off enforcement actions but a structured real heavy operation enforcement action that says this is not the sort of thing we’ll tolerate in Kansas City,” he said.

The legislation is expected to include expanding enforcement, which is currently done through the city’s regulated industries division and KCPD.

The city also wants to enhance the penalties that can be applied to those who conduct this activity.

“Right now, we have rules, I think that you’ll see an expansion of the rules right now I don’t think we look as broadly as we need to at the predatory nature at certain towing operations,” said Lucas.

KCTV5 reached out to KCPD to see how many people have contacted them with complaints about towing issues, they said they’ve received over 100 emails and numerous calls so far.

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