Get Your Hands Off My Car…

I don’t live within Houston’s actual city limits, even though I still refer to where I live as Houston. Technically, our mailing address is Tomball now, but the Houston mailing addresses are just a few blocks away. I generally try to pay attention to what goes on within the Houston City Council though, because it still effects me. Somehow the whole “Safe Clear” thing slipped under my radar until Emily had an incident with them trying to tow their vehicle.

Now I’ve seen the “Safe Clear” zone signs on the highway, and I’ve paid attention when they talk about it on the news. It really made me perk up this morning when they said that the city council had discovered that ONE THIRD of the tow truck drivers involved have a criminal record. One third. And they can’t tow your vehicle with you in it, so they would have offered to let you get into the tow truck – unless you specifically requested a police escort instead.

Today the City Council passed unanimously an ordinance that bars violent criminals from Safe Clear. “Convicted sex or violent offenders will never be eligible for licenses to perform non-consent tows such as those under the city’s Safe Clear program or others ordered by police. Anyone convicted of committing other crimes, including fraud, robbery and auto accidents (thanks to the help of this

charleston car accident attorney) , must have a clean record for seven years before being eligible for a license.”

I’m still not very comforted by the whole thing. I’m not sure why, but it just freaks me out a little. I guess I just need to make sure I never need a tow.