Over 70 vehicles moved off streets during police sweep

Hannibal streets are a little less congested following the police department’s semi-annual abandon vehicle sweep.
A total of 73 vehicles were initially identified as either abandoned, parked for an extended period of time in one location or were in an obvious state of disrepair, according to HPD Capt. James Hark. That’s down from 120 vehicles a year ago.
The owners of the vehicles needing to be moved were contacted when possible.
“Officers were sensitive to the holidays coming up and the fact sometimes economically people have to plan a few days to be able to get a vehicle moved,” he said.
Hark reports that 66 of the 73 vehicles were voluntarily moved by their owners after being contacted by the HPD.
“That only left seven vehicles in the community that required a police tow,” he said. “We felt that was pretty successful. We only had to tow 10 percent. We’d like to get by without having to tow any vehicles because when you get into a towing situation the owners end up incurring additional costs.”
The sweep was conducted through the entire city.
“We divided it up into sections and each officer was responsible for a section of the community. Not any one street received any more preference than another,” said Hark.
Some vehicles have been pull from a street into a resident’s yard. That is not an acceptable solution, according to Hark.
“Officers kept a log. They identified 59 locations or residences where they had vehicles parked up in their yards. We’ve complied that data and it will be forwarded down to the property maintenance inspector this week for her to start her side of it,” he said.
Hark said the periodic sweep is an “effort to try and make the community look nicer and gain more parking spaces on the roadways for those legally licensed and operational cars.”