The NYPD has rigged up and hauled away a steadily increasing number of vehicles over the past three years, and 2009 is already on pace to top 2008, according to police data requested by The Post.

There was a 13 percent increase in towed vehicles — including those illegally parked or with too many unpaid parking tickets — between 2007 and 2008, from 120,835 impounded vehicles to 136,632, the data shows.

That follows a 5.6 percent increase from 2006 (114,402) to 2007. As of early July, 69,419 cars were towed, setting a pace of 138,838 by year’s end.

Elected officials are also calling for a crackdown on the city’s well-oiled tow and ticket machinery.

Councilman John Liu is pushing for an online database that shows block-by-block parking rules and updating them when they change.

“It’s getting hard for this administration to deny that this isn’t about revenue,” Liu said.

“There’s no question that parking fines and towing revenue has gone up by hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The NYPD said people are reading too much into the numbers, explaining that parking violations are supposed to keep traffic moving and keep people safe. “The overall increase is insignificant,” said Paul Browne, Deputy Commissioner for Public Information at the NYPD.

Cars that owe more than $101 in parking fines and are found parked illegally will be towed by the NYPD, the agency said. Vehicles with more than $350 in unpaid parking tickets will be towed without illegally parking first.

It costs at least $185 to get a car out of a tow lot, but it’s generally much more: there’s a $20 fee for every additional day the car is kept there, and the owner will also likely have to pay all outstanding parking fines.

(Source: NY Post)