How long police can hold your car in impound in Memphis is not a published number of days. The agency that placed the hold decides when the car can leave. You confirm that status with the Memphis Police Department Vehicle Storage Lot at 465 Klinke Avenue by calling (901) 636-8200. Cash at the window leaves a criminal-investigation hold in place until the lot says it’s off.
Confirm which lot has the car
Memphis sends MPD tows, Shelby County Sheriff tows, and Housing and Community Development tows through one city lot. The address is 465 Klinke Avenue, Memphis, TN 38127. The lot is open seven days, 24 hours. There’s no online lookup tool. The phone line is the single point of contact.
A car pulled from a Midtown stop still lands at Klinke. So does a Sheriff tow in unincorporated Shelby County. An HCD tow from a housing site goes there too. One lot. One number: (901) 636-8200.
A private-property tow can follow a different map. An apartment lot in Hickory Hill, a shopping center off Poplar, or a gated complex in Cordova may send the car to a private wrecker yard. If the ticket names a private company, call that yard and the agency printed on the ticket. Confirm the address before you drive north to Klinke.
A tow that started in Southaven or elsewhere in DeSoto County, Mississippi, is governed by Mississippi law. West Memphis and Marion sit under Arkansas law. Call Southaven PD non-emergency at (662) 393-8652 to locate a Southaven tow. Southaven publishes no impound-lot page and no fee schedule. Keep the search on that side of the line until someone names a Tennessee lot.
If the car moved after a crash, start with the officer’s agency and the Klinke line. The recovery steps live in our page on your car after an accident tow in Memphis. Bring the plate or VIN when you call. Make and year help. Ask whether the car is at 465 Klinke Avenue before anyone drives toward Frayser.
Separate a police hold from ordinary storage
Ordinary storage at the city lot means the car sits there until someone pays the city’s charges and proves ownership. A police hold means the investigating agency still has a claim on the vehicle. The lot can refuse release even when the title and the money are in your hand.
The city’s published charges at Klinke are an impound fee of $135.00 and storage of $30.00 per day, excluding winching or other extra work. Cash and credit are accepted. Those are the city’s fees. Under city wrecker rules, storage rates begin 24 hours after impound. The daily math is its own problem, and we cover it in how Memphis daily impound charges work.
Tennessee’s current towing law, the MOTION Act as re-enacted in 2025 Public Chapter 457, lets a storage operator charge for a day the vehicle was unavailable for release when law enforcement placed a hold. That’s the hold’s money effect. The hold also blocks the pickup itself.
No verified source gives a Memphis day count for how long a criminal-investigation hold lasts. The city’s vehicle-storage page tells you to call (901) 636-8200 and check the hold before pickup. That call is the instruction that exists in writing. An investigation clock for the car could not be confirmed from the published lot material. Ask the unit that placed the hold how the case stands.
A search about how long police can hold you is usually about a person in custody. This page is about the car at the lot. Treat those as two files.
Tennessee still runs a notice-and-reclaim clock on a non-consent tow. Ownership is verified within three business days. The owner and all lienholders are notified within three more business days. That notice goes by nationally recognized overnight carrier, with proof of delivery requested. Regular mail doesn’t satisfy it. The reclaim window is 20 days from the notice date. Notice must list year, make, model, VIN, the storage location, and the right to reclaim within those 20 days on payment. Missing the notice rules is a Class B misdemeanor. That clock tells you when an unclaimed car can move toward auction. It doesn’t promise a police hold ends on day 20.
If you leave the car, the next step is a public auction. The buyer takes title free and clear of liens and ownership claims. Surplus proceeds are held for 60 days from the sale date, then go to a special fund. That’s what happens when nobody reclaims the vehicle.
Abandoned-vehicle rules are a separate track. Current law uses several clocks: 10 or more days for an older car left on public property, 3 or more days when it’s in obvious disrepair on public property, 48 or more hours when it’s illegal on public property or on private property without consent, and more than 30 consecutive days in a garage, trailer park, or parking lot. A car on private residential property without consent is treated as abandoned with no waiting period written into the enacted text. Those thresholds start abandoned processing. They don’t end a police hold.
Statewide storage-fee rules also cap ordinary storage charges at 21 days without the owner’s or a lienholder’s consent, unless the owner was told the car was ready and refused to collect it. To charge past 21 days, the owner and all lienholders must be notified at least 10 days before the extra fee starts. A garagekeeper that misses the three-business-day ownership check or the three-business-day notice may collect no more than six days of storage-related expenses. Use those rules on a private-yard bill. Use the Klinke phone on a police hold.
What you can still request while a hold is on
The hold keeps the car from leaving under its own power. You can still ask about what’s inside it.
Memphis wrecker rules require personal property and cargo that isn’t physically attached to the vehicle to be released to the owner or a designee on request, unless MPD orders otherwise. No retrieval fee and no special access hours attach to that rule. The city lot’s 24-hour window is when you make the request. Ask whether the hold covers the items in the cabin or only the vehicle.
A chance to pull a bag at the scene, before the truck rolls, hasn’t been confirmed as a legal right. After the car is in storage, the Memphis on-request rule is the one on the books.
Ask the lot which agency placed the hold. MPD, the Sheriff, and HCD all process through Klinke, so the lot is the first call. Then call the unit they name. Quick Tow doesn’t hold the car. We can’t lift a police hold. We match callers with local operators. The operator does the towing work and contracts with you.
If the original tow is the fight, know your rights when towed in Memphis covers owner choice, written authorization, and complaints to the Permits Administrator at (901) 636-6735 or permits@memphistn.gov. Clearing a hold still runs through the investigating unit.
How to check whether the hold is still active
Call (901) 636-8200. The city’s vehicle-storage page points criminal-investigation holds to that line. There’s no live lookup site.
Have the plate or VIN, plus make and year. Ask whether the car is at 465 Klinke Avenue. Ask whether a hold is still on it. Ask which unit has to clear it. Write the name down. Call that unit if the lot sends you there.
Call before you leave East Memphis, Germantown, or Bartlett. Klinke Avenue is in the 38127 zip, north of the I-240 loop. A dry run still costs a day of the city’s $30.00 storage if the city is charging it.
If they say the hold is off, ask whether the car is available for release today. You want both answers on the same call.
Call again the morning you plan to go. Status can change between a Tuesday note and a Thursday window visit. The lot is the record. A scene ticket from last week isn’t.
What to bring once the lot says you can pick up
Wait until the lot says the hold is clear. Then bring the city’s owner-pickup list.
Proof of ownership: registration, title, or a lease. The plate or VIN. A valid photo ID. A licensed driver has to drive it off, or a tow is arranged for an added fee. Plan to pay the city’s $135.00 impound fee and $30.00 per day storage, plus any extra work they list. Cash and credit are accepted.
A non-owner pickup needs a notarized statement from the owner naming the person, a legible copy of the owner’s photo ID, the plate or VIN, and the make and year. A rental needs the rental agreement plus matching ID.
Make the status call first. Pack the documents second. Pay at the window third.
If the car won’t drive, you need an operator to take it off the lot. That outbound move is a separate job. Ask the lot what they require for a pickup tow, then call us so we can match you with an operator for the run from Klinke to a shop or a driveway.
When to call us
Call us when the lot has cleared the hold and the car still needs a tow off Klinke, or when a private-yard tow is the problem in front of you. Quick Tow Memphis is a towing referral service. We take the details and match you with a local operator, and that operator contracts with you for the work. Call us at (901) 557-8700. The line takes calls 24/7.