Spotters in college towns earn bounties targeting students who cannot afford to fight back

Tow companies hire 'spotters' — often minimum-wage workers or gig contractors — to patrol college campuses, low-income neighborhoods, and apartment complexes looking for vehicles with expired permits, slightly crooked parking, or out-of-state plates. Each reported car earns the spotter $20-$50, creating a perverse incentive to find violations rather than warn drivers. Students and low-income residents are disproportionately targeted because they lack the time, money, and legal knowledge to dispute a $350 tow, and the cost of missing work or class to retrieve their car compounds the financial damage. This persists because spotter bounties are legal in two-thirds of states, there is no minimum violation threshold before a tow can be initiated, and tow companies face no anti-discrimination oversight for where they choose to patrol.