Washington DC police finally decide to tow Audi Q5 after 893 tickets and $262,204 in fines
Published on May 22, 2026 at 1:17 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on May 22, 2026 at 1:17 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Mason Jones
Washington, DC police finally figured out a way to impound an Audi Q5 from Maryland that had been racking up tickets for ages.
The obvious question is how it took almost 900 tickets for the police to finally take action and seize the car.
The answer begins with a ‘B’ – and ends with ‘ureaucracy.’
There was a loophole, but it has finally been closed.
This is what the DC police had to say
An Audi Q5 with Maryland plates spent years ignoring speed cameras in the capital, collecting 893 tickets for a grand total of $262,204.
After finally seizing the car a few weeks ago, the Metropolitan Police Department’s Traffic Enforcement Unit announced the impoundment on April 9 via X.
“Yesterday, MPD’s Traffic Enforcement Unit and our partners at DC DPW impounded a vehicle with 893 outstanding tickets, totaling over $260,000 in fines. Repeated disregard of traffic law is unacceptable. We’ll continue to track down scofflaw vehicles to keep DC roadways safe,” they wrote.
Washington, DC had just over 100 speed cameras in 2020, but by 2024, that number had risen to 477, and it’s close to 550 now.
DC’s Senator Ankit Jain told Autoblog that this made a huge difference.
“It seemed like nothing was working, and then all of a sudden we added more traffic cameras and it’s easier than people thought it would be to reduce traffic deaths. I think we’re going in the right direction,” he said.
It sounds great, apart from this tiny loophole that took years to fix.
This is how the loophole worked
The problem was that residents of neighboring states like Maryland and Virginia frequently ignored the District’s speed limits.
There was no mechanism in place to ‘force’ drivers to pay tickets issued by these cameras.
A camera ticket is not the same as a police stop; if an out-of-state owner ignored the notice, there was virtually nothing DC could do.
Apparently, the loophole was quite easy to fix, and so DC did.
A 2024 law, known as the STEER Act, expanded the city’s authority by allowing the Attorney General to file civil lawsuits directly against out-of-state violators.
Since the law took effect, the state has recovered more than $500,000 in unpaid fines, and this is by far the biggest single case on record.
And if you’re thinking that it sounds like they should’ve been able to act sooner, well, you’re not alone.
After beginning his automotive writing career at DriveTribe, Alessandro has been with Supercar Blondie since the launch of the website in 2022. In fact, he penned the very first article published on supercarblondie.com. He’s covered subjects from cars to aircraft, watches, and luxury yachts - and even crypto. He can largely be found heading up the site’s new-supercar and SBX coverage and being the first to bring our readers the news that they’re hungry for.
