Except when authorized or directed under State law to immediately
take a person before the Municipal Judge for the violation of any
traffic laws, a Police Officer who halts a person for such violation
other than for the purpose of giving him/her a warning or warning
notice and does not take such person into custody under arrest, shall
issue to him/her a uniform traffic ticket which shall be proceeded
upon in accordance with Supreme Court Rule Number 37.
Whenever any motor vehicle without driver is found parked or
stopped in violation of any of the restrictions imposed by ordinance
of the City or by State law, the officer finding such vehicle shall
take its registration number and may take any other information displayed
on the vehicle which may identify its user, and shall conspicuously
affix to such vehicle a uniform traffic ticket for the driver to answer
to the charge against him/her within five (5) days during the hours
and at a place specified in the uniform traffic ticket.
If a violator of the restrictions on stopping, standing or parking
under the traffic laws or ordinances does not appear in response to
a uniform traffic ticket affixed to such motor vehicle within a period
of five (5) days, the Traffic Violations Bureau shall send to the
owner of the motor vehicle to which the uniform traffic ticket was
affixed a letter informing him/her of the violation and warning him/her
that in the event such letter is disregarded for a period of five
(5) days a warrant of arrest will be issued.
[CC 1991 §23-45; Ord. No. 815 §2(5), 9-13-1989]
A. Members
of the Police are authorized to remove a vehicle from a street or
highway to the nearest garage or other place of safety, or to a garage
designated or maintained by the Police or otherwise maintained by
the City, under the circumstances hereinafter enumerated:
1. When
any vehicle is left unattended upon any bridge, viaduct or causeway
or in any tube or tunnel where such vehicle constitutes an obstruction
to traffic;
2. When
a vehicle on or near a highway is so disabled or stopped in such way
as to constitute an obstruction or other hazard to traffic and the
person in charge of the vehicle, by reason of physical injury or other
cause, is incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide
for its custody or removal or the Police determine that it is necessary
for the vehicle to be impounded for evidence, seizure under law, or
for any other reasons of safety or traffic movement or control;
3. When
any vehicle is left unattended upon a street and is so parked illegally
as to constitute a definite hazard or obstruction to the normal movement
of traffic;
4. When
any partially dismantled, nonoperating, wrecked or junked vehicle
is left unattended on any street within the City; or
5. When
any vehicle is abandoned on any street within the City or left at
any street for such time and under such circumstances as to cause
such vehicle reasonably to appear to have been abandoned.
B. Whenever
a Police Officer removes a vehicle from a street as authorized in
this Section and he/she knows or is able to ascertain from the registration
records in the vehicle the name and address of the owner thereof,
such Officer shall immediately give or cause to be given notice in
writing to such owner of the fact of such removal and the reasons
therefor and of the place to which such vehicle has been removed.
In the event any such vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy
of such notice shall be given to the proprietor of such garage.
C. Whenever
a Police Officer removes a vehicle from a street pursuant to this
Section and does not know and is not able to ascertain the name of
the owner or for any other reason is unable to give the notice to
the owner as hereinbefore provided, and in the event the vehicle is
not returned to the owner within a period of three (3) days, then
and in that event the Officer shall immediately send or cause to be
sent a written report of such removal by mail to the State Department
whose duty it is to register motor vehicles and shall file a copy
of such notice with the proprietor of any public garage in which the
vehicle may be stored. Such notice shall include a complete description
of the vehicle, the date, time and place from which removed, the reasons
for such removal, and the name of the garage or place where the vehicle
is stored.