New York Laws
Article 17 - Other Provisions Relating to Registration and Possession
424 - Stolen or Impounded Motor Vehicles.

(b) For the purposes of this subdivision the term "impound" shall be
deemed to include the taking into possession by an agency of any motor
vehicle which has been abandoned, repossessed, seized pending forfeiture
proceedings, taken into custody or held as evidence in the course of a
police investigation, required to be impounded by law, or in any other
way taken into possession or held by an agency under circumstances in
which the owner may not reasonably have knowledge of the status of the
vehicle. Nothing contained herein shall preclude a police department,
which has taken a vehicle into custody under these or other
circumstances, from entering a vehicle into the New York statewide
police information network as an impounded vehicle to facilitate
location of the vehicle by its owner.
2. Any police officer, state trooper or peace officer acting pursuant
to his or her special duties shall have the power to seize any motor
vehicle or trailer in the state when there is good reason to believe
that such motor vehicle or trailer has been stolen. Unless the vehicle
is subject to the provisions of section four hundred twenty-three-a of
this article, the appropriate agency shall contact the owner of such
motor vehicle or trailer, if known, and, after any stolen vehicle alarm
resulting from such theft has been cancelled, release the vehicle to
such owner. If the owner thereof cannot be ascertained in accordance
with procedures established by regulations of the commissioner, a local
police agency shall dispose of such vehicle as an abandoned vehicle
pursuant to section twelve hundred twenty-four of this chapter, and the
state police shall hold such vehicle for, or deliver it to the office of
general services.