In July, the City of San José Department of Transportation announced a new effort to focus more on citing and towing vehicles parked on city streets with significantly expired registration. The program began issuing warnings that month and found 2,931 vehicles in violation. In August, parking officers began issuing $63 tickets to vehicles with registration expired between six months and one year, and towing vehicles more than a year out of compliance.

Now, data from the first eight weeks show that the effort is making an impact. Officers have citied and towed hundreds of vehicles whose owners have neglected to keep them registered.

The approach

The Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget added three new parking officers to the department and shifted three others away from recently suspended programs. The new team of six will be patrolling every street in San José, looking for expired registration stickers.

If a vehicle is found and verified against Department of Motor Vehicles records, to have registration expired between six months and one year, it is eligible for a citation. Any vehicle with registration expired by more than a year is eligible for immediate towing.

The team is currently half staffed, with three officers. They are starting their patrols in areas near interim housing sites and former Oversized and Lived-In Vehicle Enforcement (OLIVE) sites first, then expanding their routes from there. An additional three officers will be added to the team in 2026, which will help us move through the city quicker.

The results

Even with a still-growing team, the first eight weeks have been very productive. From August 18 through October 11, 356 vehicles were ticketed and 350 were towed. The oldest registration our officers found was from April 1999! Patrols have covered about 20% of the city so far and included streets near ten emergency interim and bridge housing sites and 18 OLIVE locations.

 

As more vehicles are ticketed and towed, street parking is opened up for vehicles with current registration. And the registration money goes into transit, transportation, and parking programs across the state. Thank you for doing your part by keeping your vehicle registration current!