Her colleagues had just reached an informal compromise on a controversial measure to impound vehicles of uninsured drivers in accidents, a deal that involved revisiting the program in two years to check for racial and geographic profiling.

"The logistics need some work," Dr. Garcia said. "That being said, I'm going to support it because it's a compromise - because it's a step in the right direction."

With Dr. Garcia's support, the council will probably cast a unanimous vote Wednesday for the towing compromise, which was negotiated by Mayor Laura Miller, the measure's author, and Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill late last week.

Police would ask drivers involved in accidents to show proof of insurance. If they don't have insurance, their cars would be towed to the city's pound at their expense.

If drivers say they have insurance but don't have their information with them, officers are expected to make every effort to validate the claim - by calling the insurance company, for example - before towing the vehicle.

"A majority of the City Council was ready to approve [the measure] with no stipulations," Ms. Miller said. "Because some people had some issues, I thought it would be nicer for us to get closer to a consensus."

Advocates of the measure say it will keep people who aren't authorized to drive from causing costly and sometimes fatal accidents. And they believe a corresponding reduction in accidents will lower insurance rates for law-abiding drivers.

Driving with auto insurance "is the law, and laws should be enforced," Mr. Hill said. "The compromise pieces will hopefully sensitize our police officers, give us feedback on how people are treated and give us a chance to see really what the impact is."

For example, will immigrants and low-income residents - those least likely to have auto insurance - be unfairly targeted? Or will moving police officers from patrol to traffic hurt crime-fighting?

And can the pound, with its handful of full-time employees and capacity for 2,500 cars at one time, manage an estimated 11,000 additional cars a year?

In a review of Seattle's program, for example, blacks made up 40 percent of those whose cars were impounded (and 10 percent of the population). About 50 percent of the time, car owners couldn't afford or chose not to retrieve their vehicles from the pound.

"There are still some questions. What about Grandma and Grandpa who forget to put their insurance card in the glove compartment?" council member Pauline Medrano asked. "I'd like to look back and evaluate this and compare it to what we've learned from other cities."

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