2014 New York Laws
VAT - Vehicle & Traffic
Title 4 - REGISTRATION OF VEHICLES
Article 17 - (420 - 431) OTHER PROVISIONS RELATING TO REGISTRATION AND POSSESSION
424 - Stolen or impounded motor vehicles.

 424. Stolen  or  impounded motor vehicles. 1. (a) Agencies which are
  members of the New  York  statewide  police  information  network  shall
  report  any theft, recovery or impounding of a motor vehicle, trailer or
  part or parts thereof to such network. Agencies which are not members of
  the New York  statewide  police  information  network  shall  make  such
  reports through a member agency.  Such reports shall if possible contain
  at  least the vehicle identification number, the date of theft, recovery
  or impounding of the vehicle, the license plate  number  and  where  the
  vehicle  was  stolen,  recovered  or impounded and the name, address and
  telephone number of the facility where such  vehicle  has  been  stored.
  Such  information  shall  be made available to the commissioner of motor
  vehicles. The commissioner may  assist  in  providing  information  with
  respect  to stolen or recovered motor vehicles, trailers and parts as he
  may deem advisable.
(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 policeman, state trooper or peace officer  acting  pursuant  to
  his  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.