Chicago aldermen are making another attempt at cracking down on rogue towing companies that victimize drivers, towing their cars from crash scenes and charging exorbitant fees to get them back.

The City Council Committee on License and Consumer Protection on Tuesday backed an ordinance that sponsors said would put tow truck drivers who are unlicensed or who are taking advantage of drivers in stressful and scary situations on notice.

The measure would empower Chicago police officers to impound and tow away predatory tow truck drivers' vehicles, and allow victims to file civil lawsuits against rule-breaking tow companies.

"It allows for CPD, once we determine who the bad actors are, CPD to tow the bad tow truck drivers, and really start to crack down on this industry," said Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), who has worked for years to crack down on rogue towing companies.

Despite past attempts to crack down on predatory tow truck operators by requiring towing companies to get a city license in order to respond to car crashes, many drivers still complain about being victimized.

After getting into an accident and having a tow truck company show up to tow it away, some unlicensed companies are still charging thousands of dollars for drivers to get their cars back.

"We're probably dealing with this about five to six times a week," said John O'Donnell, vice president of risk management at Enterprise car rental company. "It becomes a process of trying to get these vehicles released, and typically they want cash."

His customers and company have been victims of rogue towers.

 "Vehicles are getting towed off our lots, illegally. They're basically stealing them from us. So that's a cost directly to us and to our bottom line," he said.

O'Donnell said Enterprise has come across 92 different companies doing this.

"Half of those, we realized, are people that have shut down a business and then reopened under a different name and a new entity," he said.

CBS News Chicago has reported on incidents where a towing company has asked for almost $60,000 to give back someone's car.

The Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates towing operators at the state level, will flag and fine predatory towing companies, but many times such businesses will disband and rebrand under a new name to start the practice all over again.

"We need some teeth within the legislation," Villegas said.

The proposed ordinance approved by the License Committee on Tuesday also allows victims to sue the rogue actors.

"As we begin to deal with this issue, the bad actors are going to try to find ways to skirt the system, and so we've just got to continue to have this evolve to make sure we can finally put an end to this," Villegas said.

The latest bid to crack down on predatory towing passed the License Committee unanimously, and will go to the full City Council for a vote next week.