Vehicles: impoundment: prostitution.

Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city and county to adopt an ordinance declaring a motor vehicle to be a nuisance subject to an impoundment period of up to 30 days when the motor vehicle is involved in the commission of any one or more of specified crimes related to prostitution or illegal dumping of commercial quantities of waste matter upon a public or private highway or road if the owner or operator of the vehicle has had a prior conviction for the same offense within the past 3 years. Existing law requires the ordinance to include specified provisions related to notice, the payment of towing, storage, and administrative fees, the provision of a poststorage hearing, and the release of the impounded vehicle. This bill would also provide that a vehicle used in the commission of a crime related to prostitution by a person buying or attempting to buy sexual services is a nuisance subject to an impoundment period of up to 30 days. The bill would impose the same procedures for impoundment, storage, and release of the vehicle as are provided under the ordinance-authorizing provisions described above, without the requirement that an ordinance be passed in order to authorize local authorities to make use of the impounding authority.