On Nov. 7, a week after the Milwaukee Police Department was given new powers allowing it to impound any vehicles involved in reckless driving, MPD had its first new ride: a 2010 gray Dodge Caliber.
It was the first of more than 30 vehicles impounded in the first two months of the ordinance.
The new impoundments, which began in November after state law caught up to an ordinance passed in 2023, can occur regardless of a vehicle’s registration status or ownership. It’s a means of delivering an immediate consequence to reckless drivers, proponents say. “People now don’t have those cars to use as weapons against our fellow citizens,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at a press conference earlier this month.
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The ability to impound vehicles – which can be auctioned off or destroyed after 90 days – offers a case “self-inflicted punishment,” says Ald. Lamont Westmoreland. “This proves that the ordinance is actually being used, which matters, but it also confirms what we already knew: reckless driving is a real and ongoing problem.”
Owners of vehicles that are impounded must pay $150 for the towing of the vehicle, $25 a day for as long as it’s impounded, plus any related outstanding citations.
The goal, he adds, isn’t to rack up an untold number of impoundments.
“I want behavior to change. Impoundment is a deterrent, meant to get people’s attention,” Westmoreland says. “Success is fewer accidents, injuries and deaths, as well as safer streets, not full tow lots.”
The number of crashes in Milwaukee last year, 14,324, was just 25 higher from 2024, and hit-and-run crashes were also relatively flat at 5,421. Fatal crashes decreased 17% to 55.
Westmoreland still senses frustration among constituents over reckless driving.
“They’re tired of being terrorized,” he said. “But I’m hearing that people are encouraged the city is finally using stronger enforcement tools. For too long, dangerous driving was treated like an inconvenience instead of a threat. Reckless driving is the biggest threat to public safety in the city, not gun violence. We need to respond like it.”
