Smith County Vehicle Impound Guide

A DWI arrest by the Tyler Police Department on a Friday night means the car sits until Monday morning, no matter what. The department's Property Division, which handles all municipal impounds, keeps strict hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, closed entirely on weekends and city holidays. There's no after-hours option and no way around it. Anyone released over the weekend should line up a ride and gather every document they'll need well before Monday, because arriving unprepared at 8 a.m. just pushes the whole process into the following day.

You need an appointment, and a very specific reason to skip it

The Property Division doesn't take walk-ins, period; retrieval requires calling 903-531-1075 to schedule a specific time even when every document is already in order. If the registered owner is still in jail, a family member can't just show up with a spare key. The owner has to sign a Property Release Form authorizing a specific third party, who then presents their own driver's license and a second photo ID at the scheduled appointment.

The license paradox

An officer who arrests someone for DWI takes their physical license and hands over a paper DIC-25 in its place, a valid temporary driving permit. Property Division staff routinely reject that paper as valid photo ID for releasing a vehicle anyway. The workaround is bringing a second person who holds a valid physical license to the appointment: the registered owner supplies proof of ownership and insurance, and the second person is the one who's actually allowed to drive the car off the lot.

Cash or check, no exceptions

The $175 flat tow fee has to be paid in exact cash or by check. Families showing up with a debit or credit card, which happens constantly, are turned away outright, and missing the payment method forfeits the scheduled appointment slot, often pushing release into the next business day on top of everything else.

If you catch the tow before it leaves

For a nonconsent tow handled through the county's private rotation rather than Tyler PD directly, reaching the vehicle while it's still being hooked up, before the truck has actually left the lot, gives you the right to have it released for a drop fee, no proof of ownership required on the spot. If a tow already happened and you think it was unlawful, Texas law gives you 14 days to request a hearing with the local Justice of the Peace, and you can access the vehicle at the storage facility for free specifically to retrieve the ownership documents needed to file that request.