The city of Birmingham is alerting visitors, including the 50,000 expected in downtown for the NCAA Tournament this week, that if they’re not careful where they park, they may fall victim to predatory towing.

The city has erected signs at some downtown lots that read “Beware of towing. Pay parking lot” with an attached link to a towing landing page on the city’s website.

While the signs originally featured a link that read “birminghamal.gov/predatorytowing” they were later updated Thursday morning to read the correct landing page address “birminghamal.gov/towing.”

“Business owners, residents, and visitors of the City of Birmingham have voiced concerns and complaints about towing practices happening downtown,” reads the site. “The City of Birmingham is not affiliated with privately owned lots or privately operated towing companies. Privately owned parking lots are managed through private contracts with privately operated towing companies.

“The city rarely uses towing as an enforcement practice, and only does so in the case of safety-related blockages in the public right-of-way such as the blocking of streets, intersections, crosswalks, driveways, and alleys.

“Street parking is encouraged if you want to avoid potential run-ins with private towing companies in private lots.”

The signage and the new landing page come weeks after multiple Birmingham drivers accused private towing company Parking Enforcement Services (PES) of predatory towing practices over the last few months.

Helen Hays previously told the Lede that an armed attendant at the PES lot forced her to stand in freezing weather to pay the $160 fee to retrieve her car in late December and less than month later a PES tow truck was shown scraping a parked vehicle on video.

Even before that, a driver who went to the PES lot to retrieve his towed vehicle was fatally shot after an encounter with a PES tow truck driver. The tow truck driver was not charged in the case.

Legal cases involving PES date back to at least 2011. The case of Michael Adelson, who sued the company for $285, involved accusations that PES wrongfully immobilized his vehicle and demanded payment to retrieve it. The case was dismissed by now retired District Judge Jack Lowther.

Just four years later, in March 2015, former AL.com reporter Conner Sheets reported that Birmingham City Council was exploring possible changes to the city’s towing ordinance for the second time in response to a high volume of complaints against the company.

Sheets reported that in 2013, Birmingham City Council made their first ordinance change to limit towing fees to $160 or less. This came after complaints about PES charging owners nearly $300 to retrieve cars that had been towed from within Birmingham city limits.

Christina Argo, division manager for the Birmingham Department of Transportation, said this was the last time the ordinance had been revised.

“We are currently working through some revisions to the ordinance and just strengthening the language around what we’re requiring,” said Argo. “That should be rolling out, I would say in the next couple of months. We’ve got a lot of folks we’ve got to vet it through.

“But if you go out and look at the ordinance, the last time I believe it was updated was 2013. So, we’re overdue to take a look at it. We believe that the changes we put into it will clear things up for folks parking downtown,” Argo said.

Signs will continue going up over the week and weekend throughout the downtown area, Argo said. She encouraged anyone who is towed from a private lot to call Birmingham’s Department of Transportation and report any issues.

PES could not be reached for comment about the new signs by press time.

However, Helen Hays, whose car was towed during a frosty night late last year, was pleased with the city’s actions.

“I think this is definitely a step in the right direction to help inform citizens and visitors to the area that their car could be towed and where they’re parking and what the consequences might be. I think they’re also going to look at the ordinance and I’m very pleased with that because I think it’s the right thing to do. I was really pleased to see that they’re taking some action on it.”