On Feb. 23, the Des Moines City Council voted 5-2 to extend its contract with the controversial towing outfit Crow Tow, which has had the city’s towing contract since 2019. This reignited the public debate on local and state towing laws, which are among the loosest in the nation.
Crow Tow has been accused of predatory behavior and unscrupulous business practices over the two decades it has been in business. Owner Randy Crow and company representatives deny those accusations.
As reported by Little Village in 2022, the Polk County Board of Supervisors rescinded its contract offer with Crow Tow in 2021 because of public backlash. Four years later, the Board voted 3-2 to award Crow Tow a contract lasting from July 1, 2025 to June 2028. Supervisors Angela Connolly and Tom Hockensmith voted against the contract, with Hockensmith noting his own well-publicized encounter with the company.
The Crow Tow saga has been chronicled by Lee Rood, “Reader’s Watchdog” columnist for the Des Moines Register, in a series of articles investigating the widespread allegations against the company and its business practices. In 2024, Rood documented political contributions made by Dawn Thornton, who runs Crow Tow with her husband Randy Crow, to Des Moines political leaders the previous year. Thornton “gave $6,500 to City Council member Linda Westergaard, $5,000 to now-Mayor Connie Boesen, and $2,500 and $1,000 respectively to council members Chris Coleman and Joe Gatto, state records show,” Rood reported…