Private property owners have the lawful right to remove vehicles from their property, which they feel have been abandoned, or violate their property management rules. Many apartment complexes and retail shopping centers within the City of New Carrollton employ the use of contract towing services to impound vehicles from their property. The police department does not regulate these types of "private impounds," and has no involvement in the release of vehicles impounded under these circumstances. If you think your vehicle was towed from private property, you should contact the property owner or management company to inquire which towing company has possession of your vehicle. (In most cases, the property will be posted with signs indicating the name of the authorized towing service and their telephone number.) If you are unable to locate the property owner or their agent, you can call the New Carrollton City Police Department, and we will assist you in determining which company towed your vehicle and why. Note: If you think your vehicle was towed from the "Shoppes at New Carrollton" shopping center, located at the corner of Annapolis Road & Riverdale Road, call Henry's Wrecker Service at 301-927-0007 for retrieval details. The "Shoppes at New Carrollton" shopping center is easily identified by its "big box" retail stores such as, "Lowe's," "Shoppers Food Warehouse," "Staples," and "Foodway."
Parking tickets are paid at the New Carrollton City Municipal Center - 6016 Princess Garden Parkway - New Carrollton, MD 20784 (Monday - Friday, from 9am to 5pm)
Anyone receiving a parking citation has the lawful right to request a trial in the Maryland District Court, where a judge will hear your case and decide your guilt or innocence. To request to stand trial, you must enter your name and address on the citation in the space provided, and return it to the New Carrollton City Police Department within 10 Days. Failure to request a trial date within the 10 day period, will constitute a waiver of your right to a hearing. Once your request has been received by the police department, it will be forwarded to the District Court, and will be set in for trial. You will be notified by mail of the date, time and location of the court house. Due to the extreme caseload of the court, you may not receive a court notice for several months.
You can report it to the New Carrollton City Police Department at 301-459-0142. Give the address where the vehicle is located. Also give a full description of the vehicle (make and model) and include the license plate number. Let us know how long the vehicle has been at the location. We would also like your name and phone number so that the officer who responds to your call can contact you if needed. Your name and phone number is confidential and is not given out. Anonymous complaints are also accepted. Please note that some abandoned vehicle violations are handled by the city's Department of Code Enforcement, however all violations can be reported to the listed phone number.
Red light running is a leading cause of urban crashes and often causes injury and death. According to the Federal Highway Administration, approximately 250 people nationwide are killed or injured each day by red light violators. This amounts to more than 1,100 deaths and over 150,000 injuries a year in crashes that result from running red lights. More than half of the deaths are pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles who are hit by red light violators. Studies show that red light cameras significantly reduce the number of red light violations and intersection crashes. Photo enforcement is a proven deterrent that changes behavior and leads to safer driving habits.
Red light cameras also provide a more effective means of law enforcement than traditional enforcement methods carried out by police. Enforcing traffic laws in dense urban areas proves difficult for police officers, as they typically follow a violating vehicle through the red signal in order to cite it. Traffic volume and safety considerations mean that law enforcement officials can only apprehend a fraction of the violators, putting motorists and pedestrians as risk. Jurisdictions would need tremendous financial capabilities to constantly patrol intersections in order to cite red light violators. Red light cameras provide safe and consistent enforcement at a resonable cost, whicle allowing officers to focus on other enforcement issues.
The fine will not increase from the original .00, however payments not made by a certain date will cause your vehicle registration information to be sent to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which will in turn, post a "flag" on the tags. This flag will prevent the owner from renewing the
vehicle's registration until the outstanding fine has been paid, and an official "Flagging Release" has been issued by the police department. In
those cases, an additional .00 administrative fee is added to the original fine to offset the cost of the flagging program.
In addition to vehicles which proceed through the intersection while the light is in the red phase, red light camera violations are also triggered by vehicles which pass the clearly marked "stop line" or enter the pedestrian crosswalk. You would not have received a citation unless one of those three conditions had been met. (See above for additional information and an example picture.)
The police department uses a third party company to collect online payments. That company notifies us when "flagged" payments have been made, and in turn, we mail the official flagging release paperwork to the registered owner of the vehicle. This process takes approximately 4 weeks for the flagging release to be mailed out, however if you need a release sooner (to renew your tags immediately), simply call us at (301) 459-0142 and we will mail the out the flagging release right away, or appear at the police station in person, and we will hand it to you on the spot.
You can request to stand trial in District Court by completing the form on the reverse side of your citation, and mailing it to the police department no less than five (5) days prior to the due date. You will then be notified of a court date by mail. You are not required to bring your copy of the citation to court (unless you want to), as the judge will have a copy of your citation in front of him or her, as well as enlarged pictures of the violation.
If you are found guilty, the maximum you can be charged is 0.00, plus court costs.
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