A.
The
City shall provide books containing uniform traffic tickets as prescribed
by Supreme Court Rule. Said books shall include serially numbered
sets of citations in quadruplicate in the form prescribed by Supreme
Court Rule.
B.
Such
books shall be issued to the Chief of Police or his/her duly authorized
agent, a record shall be maintained of every book so issued, and a
written receipt shall be required for every book. The judge or judges
hearing City ordinance violation cases may require that a copy of
such record and receipts be filed with the court.
C.
The
Chief of Police shall be responsible for the issuance of such books
to individual members of the Police Department. The Chief of Police
shall require a written receipt for every book so issued and shall
maintain a record of every such book and each set of citations contained
therein.
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 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.
A.
Members
of the Police Department 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 Department,
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 upon a highway is so disabled as to constitute an
obstruction to traffic and the person in charge of the vehicle is
by reason of physical injury incapacitated to such an extent as to
be unable to provide its custody or removal; or
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.
B.
Whenever
an officer removes a vehicle from a street as authorized in this Section
and the officer 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
an officer removes a vehicle from a street under 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.
[Code 1961 §11-66; CC 1976 §15-125]
If any vehicle is found upon a street or highway in violation
of any provision of this Title regulating the stopping, standing or
parking of vehicles and the identity of the operator cannot be determined,
the owner or person in whose name such vehicle is registered shall
be held prima facie responsible for such violation.
