A vehicle may be reported as abandoned if it meets one of the following legal criteria:

PUBLIC STREET or ALLEY

1. The vehicle is inoperable

2. The vehicle has no valid license plate or temporary registration sticker

After we receive your report and confirm the information, we are required by city ordinance to place an orange abandoned vehicle sticker on the car. If, after 7 days the owner has not brought their vehicle in compliance with the law, the Police Department will make arrangements to have the vehicle removed.

PRIVATE PROPERTY

1. The vehicle is inoperable

2. The vehicle has no valid license plate or temporary registration sticker

3. The vehicle has been left on private property without consent of the property owner

After we receive your report and confirm the information, we are required by city ordinance to place a private property abandoned vehicle sticker on the car. If, after 5 days the owner has not brought their vehicle in compliance with the law, the Police Department will make arrangements to have the vehicle removed

Note: If the vehicle has been left on private property without the owner’s consent and the property owner requests the vehicle be towed, the vehicle may be towed immediately with no prior warning or notice to the vehicle owner.

If the vehicle in question has met one of the conditions outlined above and you wish to report the vehicle as abandoned now, proceed to our online form below or contact us at:

Peoria Police Department
600 SW Adams Street
Peoria, IL 61602
309-673-4521
309-494-8221

City Ordinance of Abandoned Vehicles

DIVISION 4. ABANDONED VEHICLES
Abandoned vehicle means any vehicle in a state or disrepair rendering the vehicle incapable of being driven in this condition; or any vehicle that has not been moved or used for seven consecutive days or more and is apparently deserted.

Sec. 28-341. Prohibited; authority of police to impound.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to abandon a vehicle on a street or highway in the city.
(b) Members of the police department of this city are hereby authorized to remove an abandoned vehicle from any street or highway to an authorized garage, as determined and designated by the superintendent of police.
(Code 1957, § 19-126.1)

Sec. 28-391. Removal of vehicles in violation.
Whenever any motor vehicle shall be found parked, abandoned, or stalled on a street in violation of sections 28-386 through 28-390, such vehicle may be removed and conveyed by means of towing and impounding in accordance with the provisions of section 28-272 or towing and removing to the nearest available parking space on the nearest cross street which is not a street on which parking pursuant to this division or any other ordinance is prohibited or towing and removing to an available off-street location.

Sec. 28-392. Parking violation notice; penalty.
Whenever any motor vehicle shall be found illegally parked, abandoned or stalled in violation of this division, the police shall notify the owner or driver of such vehicle by handing to him or fixing on the vehicle a parking violation notice. The owner or driver of the vehicle may appear in person or mail the sum of $35.00 to the parking collection office within seven days of the issuance of such notice excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays in full satisfaction of such violation. Upon failure to pay such penalty within seven days, the owner of the vehicle shall pay the sum of $40.00 in full satisfaction of such violation.
(Code 1957, § 19-5.10)

Sec. 28-344. Notice to owners of vehicles abandoned; contents; manner of serving notice.
Except as otherwise provided in section 28-343, whenever the superintendent of police shall receive any abandoned vehicle, he shall within 15 days thereafter ascertain, if possible, from the secretary of state the name of the owner and any other person legally entitled to possession of such motor vehicle by reason of an existing conditional sale contract, having a lien as a chattel mortgagee, or any other reason, and shall cause notice to be sent by certified United States mail, return receipt requested, to such owner and to such other person legally entitled to possession, if known. Such notice shall contain a full description of the vehicle.
(Code 1957, § 19-126.4)