The Aurora City Council gave initial approval Monday to ordinances that allow police to impound vehicles and create a way to recover stolen shopping carts.
The impound ordinance gives police the right to tow a vehicle if they suspect it is unregistered and the driver unlicensed and uninsured.
“Since the pandemic, the number of motor vehicles on Aurora’s roads with expired license plates or expired temporary registration tags has increased exponentially,” according to the ordinance. “More often than not, when a vehicle is stopped by a police officer for not having valid registration, the officer finds that the operator also does not have a valid driver’s license or insurance covering the operation of the motor vehicle as required by law.”
Without these essentials, the ordinance maintains, it is not safe to operate a vehicle on Aurora’s roads. “Members of the police department are authorized, at their discretion, to remove or have removed at their direction a vehicle from a street or any public way or place to the nearest garage or other place of safety or to a garage or other impound facility….”
Unplated vehicles 'epidemic'
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said the problem of unregistered vehicles, unlicensed drivers and no insurance is becoming "epidemic." He said on a recent ridealong with a police officer they pulled over a car with no plates. It turned out to be an immigrant whose only identification was a paper they were given at the border. Coffman suspected there are many others like that person drivin around out there.
"Driving is a privilege and not a right," said council member Stephanie Hancock. She said she sees half a dozen unplated vehicles per day. She said the ordinance does give the officers discretion, "If it's a snowy night or somebody's pregnant, or something like that."
People who have their vehicle towed must pay a $185 towing fee and a daily storage fee of $75 or $80, City Manager Jason Batchelor said.
“The presence of abandoned, stolen, wrecked and/or dismantled shopping carts on public and private property creates a visual blight, is aesthetically detrimental to the community, is injurious to the general welfare of the citizens, and constitutes a public nuisance,” according to the ordinance sponsored by council member Stephanie Hancock. “The City Council believes that by establishing an ordinance that facilitates the removal of lost, stolen, or abandoned shopping carts found away from retail establishments is the best way to reduce this source of visual blight, improve the aesthetic appearance of the city and protect the health and safety of the public.”
Homeless people could lose their carts
The ordinance also would allow the city to seize shopping carts from people experiencing homelessness. Homeless people could challenge the seizure of the cart through a process whereby they prove they own it, City Attorney for Public Safety Pete Schulte said.
Batchelor said carts mostly would be seized during encampment sweeps. If a person experiencing homelessness can prove they legally obtained the shopping cart, it won't be taken, staff said. Batchelor said the city already has a contract, Keesen, that patrols the city for abandoned carts. It costs $27 per cart to take them either to the landfill or back to the store where it came from. City staff said Keesen does not worry about which store location they return the carts to, as long as it is the name of the store emblazoned on the cart.
Council member Crystal Murillo wanted assurance that police won't begin approaching people who appear to be homeless with shopping carts and threatening arrest. Public Safety Manager Pete Schulte said the ordinance only would be enforced at encampment sweeps.
The council still must approve the impound and shopping cart ordinances a second time in two weeks for them to become law.
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