State & Local Government

Who’s Involved In Municipal Towing Jobs? 5 Common Roles and Responsibilities

Last Updated: June 2026

🔎 In this article: Learn who’s involved in a municipal tow job, from the 911 Telecommunicator who takes the call to the impound lot staff who handles vehicle release — and what each role requires.

A traffic accident occurs and an involved vehicle is undriveable. Witnesses call for help. What does the chain of events that follow look like and who all is involved, from the moment this common scenario kicks off all the way to when that vehicle lands in an impound lot?

While each event like this has unique nuances, they all require coordination between multiple responsible parties, each operating under various authorities, protocols, and regulations.

In this post we break down 5 common professionals involved in municipal towing scenarios like the one above, from dispatch to vehicle impound and disposition.

📌A note before we begin: exact titles and roles vary by organization and regions.

1. The 911 Telecommunicator

Commonly, towing incidents that originate from a public call start here.

Public Safety Telecommunicators, the 911 Call Takers and Dispatchers who work in Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) or Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs), are often the first point of contact when someone reports a roadway incident.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, public safety communications services are the Call Takers and Dispatchers who handle 911 calls, routing emergency requests to the appropriate responding agencies. In larger urban areas, call-taking and dispatching functions are often handled by separate people. In smaller jurisdictions, one person may do both.

The role of these professionals in the towing chain is critical. The Telecommunicator gathers initial incident information, determines what resources are needed, and dispatches Law Enforcement (and in some cases directly triggers tow requests, depending on agency workflow and whether towing management technology is used to offload this task).

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics describes Public Safety Telecommunicators as workers who answer 9-1-1 emergency and nonemergency requests and determine the type of emergency to route the right resources. They work under significant time pressure with incomplete information, often piecing together incident details from a caller who may not know exactly where they are.

The quality of information the Telecommunicator collects and communicates directly affects how quickly and safely the scene response unfolds. Structured call-taking protocols and accurate dispatch are what allow Law Enforcement to arrive prepared and Tow Operators to be staged appropriately, as the 911.gov resource on highway safety notes:

“The timely and accurate identification of an incident’s location and the ability to dispatch the most appropriate resources has a significant impact on the roadways.”

2. The Law Enforcement Officer

Once on scene, the Law Enforcement Officer typically assumes the role of incident commander for the towing-related portion of the response.

According to the FHWA’s Traffic Incident Management Stakeholders guide, law enforcement agencies, including state police, highway patrols, county sheriffs, and municipal police departments, are the primary first responders at traffic incidents. Their on-scene responsibilities include:

Securing the scene
Conducting accident investigations
Safeguarding personal property
Supervising scene clearance
Assisting disabled motorists
Directing traffic

In the context of a towing incident specifically, the Officer is the one who authorizes the tow. Per municipal towing ordinances like, for example, those codified in East Dubuque, IL, it is the duty of the Police Officers to determine when such a vehicle should be impounded or moved, and the Tow Truck Operator shall abide by their decisions.

The Officer decides whether a vehicle is being towed for a moving violation, an arrest, an accident, or as abandoned property. That determination affects what paperwork gets generated and what happens to the vehicle next.

When a Tow Operator arrives at an incident scene, they report to the Officer acting as incident commander. The Officer may direct the Operator’s positioning, specify where the vehicle is to be transported, and flag any holds — for example, if a vehicle needs to be treated as evidence and secured accordingly.

Officers are also responsible for completing documentation tied to the tow, including the incident report and, in many jurisdictions, a tow slip or authorization record. This paperwork feeds into the impound process downstream.

3. The Tow Operator and Towing Company

The Tow Operator is the person physically removing the vehicle from the scene. The role comes with more legal responsibility than you might think.

The FHWA’s TIM Stakeholder guide describes towing and recovery service providers as responsible for the safe and efficient removal of wrecked or disabled vehicles, and debris from the incident scene. Their on-scene responsibilities include:

Recovering and removing vehicles
Protecting victims’ property
Removing roadway debris

In law enforcement towing arrangements, tow companies operate under one of two models:

Rotation Towing: a police department maintains a list of pre-qualified companies and rotates calls among them.
Contract Towing: specific companies are contracted to provide services in defined service areas, often through a competitive bid process.

Both arrangements typically require companies to meet qualification standards around equipment, response time, and operator licensing.

📑Related reading:

At the company level, responsibility for impounded or towed vehicles is significant.

For example: Bingham County, ID municipal code reflects a standard that appears across many jurisdictions:

“Tow truck companies approved to perform law enforcement towing are responsible for wrecked and disabled vehicles and the contents therein, from the time of on scene pick up until the vehicle is removed from the tow company’s premises or is otherwise released from the tow company’s custody and control.”

In practice, this means the Tow Operator must document vehicle condition at pickup, complete a tow report (typically including make, model, license plate, and pickup location), and safely transport the vehicle to the designated impound facility, all while working on or near an active, dangerous roadway.

4. The Towing Program Manager / Coordinator

Not every municipality has a person in this role by name, but most towing programs of significant scale have someone responsible for overseeing the program at an administrative level. This may fall to a dedicated Towing Coordinator, a Transportation or Police Department Administrator, or in some cases a civilian specialist embedded within the agency.

For example: The City of Portland’s towing coordinator job description describes the role as broadly responsible for monitoring and enforcing City requirements that provide consumer and safety protections, and specifically includes RFP development, contract management for municipal towing and storage contracts, and policy presentations to city council.

The City of Omaha describes their Impound Lot Manager role as one that carries administrative oversight for towing fee structures, contractor compliance, and operational performance of the facility. These are functions that, in other municipalities, may sit with a Towing Program Coordinator rather than an impound-specific manager.

If there is a dedicated person in this role, he or she is typically responsible for the health of the towing program, including:

Contract compliance
Vendor accountability
Fee schedules
Complaint resolution
Ensuring that operators on the rotation or contract meet the agency’s requirements.

In agencies running high tow volumes, this is not a part-time responsibility.

5. The Impound Lot / Vehicle Storage Facility Staff

At the operational level, impound lot staff, which may include Attendants, Supervisors, and administrative personnel (depending on facility size), are responsible for:

Receiving and logging vehicles brought in by Tow Operators
Documenting vehicle condition and confirming that VINs, license plates, and impound records match
Securing the facility and conducting perimeter checks
Managing access for vehicle owners, lien holders, insurance agents, and law enforcement personnel
Collecting towing and storage fees
Coordinating vehicle release once owners meet legal requirements
Handling vehicles with police holds separately from standard inventory
Transferring unclaimed vehicles to auction when legally allowed

The impound facility is also where the paper trail from the Officer’s tow authorization and the Tow Operator’s transport documentation gets formally reconciled. Gaps or mismatches in that documentation create problems for agencies, for tow companies, and for vehicle owners.

How These Roles Connect

Municipal towing work involves multiple professionals, agencies, businesses, processes, and tools. In a nutshell:

Telecommunicators set towing workflows in motion
Officers control the scene, authorize towing actions, and document proceedings
Tow Operators execute the physical work and assume temporary custody of vehicles towed
Program Coordinator oversees the contracts and compliance framework
Impound Manger or staff close the loop from vehicle intake to owner release and/or auction

Each handoff in that chain demands information, documentation, and accountability. When the communication is clean and the records are consistent, the process works.

But antiquated infrastructure, siloed systems of record, single-purpose tools, and manual processes complicate coordination, extending the time from initial towing dispatch to scene clearance. The consequences of delay can be devastating.

Currently and historically, the leading cause of accidental law enforcement deaths is Officers struck by vehicles, according to the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Data Collection (LEOKA).

That’s why more agencies are looking at how technology can support the professionals in these and related roles.

Want to see how agencies are better coordinating the towing-related work these professionals with a single, integrated platform? Learn about Aries, Autura’s towing management solutions for public safety agencies.