Vehicle Abatement: Improvements to Timeliness,
Oversight, and Customer Service Can Enhance the
Vehicle Abatement Program
A Report from the City Auditor
Issued September 2026
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/auditor
Presenters: Joe Rois, City Auditor
Gitanjali Mandrekar, Assistant City Auditor
Michael O’Connell, Program Performance Auditor
Dilnoza Khudoyberganova, Program Performance Auditor
Transportation and Environment Committee
Agenda Item (d)1
1 Background
• The Vehicle Abatement program is
responsible for identifying vehicles that are
potentially abandoned, inoperable, or
present significant health, safety, or
extreme blight concerns.
• Between July 2025 and March 2026, there
were about 10,000 vehicle abatement
cases.
DOT’s Vehicle Abatement Program Addresses a
Subset of SJ311 Vehicle Concerns
2 Finding 1: The Vehicle Abatement Program Meets Case
Closure Goals but Can Better Align Resources and
Performance Targets with Service Demand
• 98 percent of cases were closed within 14
days, and 80 percent through voluntary
compliance (Jul 2025 - Mar 2026).
• The Department should consider clarifying
towing guidelines for vehicles with expired
registration or multiple safety or blightrelated conditions. • Proactive patrols covered an average of 57
percent of city streets within the program’s
14-day target (Oct 2025 - Apr 2026).
Recommendations: The
Department of Transportation should:
Consider options to expedite
towing vehicles with multiple or
specific conditions, including
expired registrations
Reassess proactive patrol targets
and use a data-driven approach for
proactive patrol assignments
Update performance measures to
better reflect current operations
3 Finding 2: The Vehicle Abatement Program Can
Strengthen Documentation and Supervisory Review
• Staff’s daily logs and vehicle activities did not
always align, and the number of case visits
varied across proactive patrol staff.
• More consistent daily activity reporting and
supervisory review practices would provide
greater visibility into staff activities and
program performance.
• DOT is currently exploring route and map
optimization tools to support proactive
patrol operations.
Recommendations: The
Department of Transportation should:
Update guidelines and
expectations for tracking field
activities and supervisory review
Continue reviewing options for
route optimization tools for
proactive patrol
4 Finding 3: Better Customer Communications and
Program Information Can Improve Transparency and
Access
• SJ311 communication can better inform
customers about expected response times
and investigation outcomes.
• The Department can better ensure
consistency about the Vehicle Abatement
program across communication channels.
• Some program information is not fully
translated into all languages required under
the City’s Language Equity Policy &
Guidelines.
Recommendations: The
Department of Transportation should:
Review and align standardized
messaging across customer
communication channels
Fully translate the vehicle
abatement warning
5 Conclusion
Our audit report includes a total of 8 recommendations.
We would like to thank the Department of Transportation and the Information Technology Department for their time and insight during the audit process.
The audit report is available at www.sanjoseca.gov/auditor 6