Towed by Baltimore County police: release hours, payment and the county's maximum rates

How police-ordered tows work in Baltimore County, when a licensed tow company has to release your car, how it must take payment, and the most it may charge under the county's rates.

Updated October 23, 20267 official sources

On this page4 sections

1When the company has to release your car
2Paying and your bill
3The county's maximum rates
4Extra fees for an unusual recovery

Baltimore County has no single impound lot for police tows. When the county police have a car towed, a private tow company that holds a county police-initiated towing license takes it to that company's own fenced storage yard, at the address on its license.¹ Baltimore City runs its own impound lots under different rules. This guide covers the county.

The county's regulations don't say how an owner finds out which company has the car, and we didn't find a county page that does. The Baltimore County Police Department's general information line is 410-887-2214, and its non-emergency line is 410-887-2222.²

When the company has to release your car

The rules for every licensed company:³

It has to post its hours, and someone has to be there during them.
It has to release cars to owners on weekdays, open for at least 8 hours in a row starting between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.
On Saturdays, Sundays and county holidays, it has to release cars between 9 a.m. and noon. It may stay closed on Sundays and holidays instead, but then it can't charge storage for those days.
It may release cars at other times too.

Paying and your bill

The rules on payment and bills:⁴

Payment. Besides cash, the company has to take at least two major credit cards, such as Visa, MasterCard or American Express.
An itemized bill. You get one listing every fee, with a paper copy. Work you ask for yourself, like a tow somewhere else or opening outside its hours, goes on a separate receipt.
The posted maximums. The county's maximum fee schedule has to be posted where owners can see it in the company's office.

If you ask for the car to be towed somewhere else and the request is reasonable, the company has to do it, as long as you can arrange payment.⁵

The county's maximum rates

These are the most a licensed company may charge for a basic police-ordered tow of a light vehicle (10,000 pounds or less), effective February 1, 2025. Companies may charge less:⁶

Charge	County maximum
Towing at the request of the Baltimore County Police Department	$230.00
Towing management fee	$31.00
Storage per day or part of a day, from 12:01 a.m. on the first calendar day after the tow	$60.00
Towing when the keys aren't available, on top of the towing fee	$30.00
Towing beyond the company's storage lot, per mile	$6.00
Administrative fee, only if you haven't claimed the car or arranged to within three business days	$80.00

The schedule lists other charges, like winching and extra trucks, for when they're needed. Storage runs by the day, so collecting the car sooner costs less.⁶

Extra fees for an unusual recovery

A company may add a fee of its own for extraordinary circumstances, such as a recovery that needs specialized equipment. If it does, it has to give you a written statement of that fee and how to contest it, which you sign when you collect the car. The statement says you can take the fee to a neutral arbitrator, whose decision is binding. If you win, you're refunded the difference. If you lose, you pay the arbitrator's administrative costs.⁷

Code of Baltimore County Regulations, title 02, subtitle 02, chapter 02, and the Baltimore County Police Department, checked October 2026.