The chief of police shall provide books to include traffic citation forms for notifying alleged violators to appear and answer to charges of violating traffic laws and ordinances in the municipal court of the city. The books shall include serially numbered sets of citations in quadruplicate in the form prescribed and approved jointly by the judge of the municipal court and the chief of police. The chief of police shall be responsible for the issuance of the 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 book and each set of citations contained therein.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-100; 1994 Code, sec. 70.60; Ordinance adopting 2021 Code)
Except when authorized or directed under state law to immediately take a person before a magistrate for the violation of any traffic laws, a police officer who halts a person for a violation other than for the purpose of giving the person a warning and does not take the person into custody under arrest shall take the name, address, and the operator’s license number of the person, the registered number of the motor vehicle involved, and such other pertinent information as may be necessary, and shall issue to the person in writing on a form, as provided for in section 11.02.001, a traffic citation containing a notice to answer to the charge against him or her in the municipal court at a time at least ten days after the alleged violation, to be specified in the citation. The officer, upon receiving a written promise of the alleged violator to answer as specified in the citation, shall release the person from custody.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-101; 1994 Code, sec. 70.61; Ordinance adopting 2021 Code)
Every police officer upon issuing a traffic citation to an alleged violator of any provision of the motor vehicle laws of this state or of this chapter or any other traffic ordinance of the city shall deposit the original and both duplicate copies of the citation with his or her immediate superior officer, who shall cause them to be delivered to the municipal court. Upon the filing of the original citation in the municipal court, the citation may be disposed of only by trial in the court or by other official action by a judge of that court, including forfeiture of bail or cash escrow deposit. The judge of the municipal court shall require the return to the judge of each traffic citation, and all copies thereof, which has been spoiled or upon which any entry has been made and has not been issued to an alleged violator. The chief of police shall establish a procedure not in conflict with this chapter for the voiding of traffic citations that are spoiled or improperly or erroneously drawn. It shall be unlawful and official misconduct for any member of the police department or other officer or public employee to dispose of, alter, or deface a traffic citation or any copy thereof, or the record of the issuance or disposition of any traffic citation, complaint, or warrant, in a manner other than as required in this section.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-102; 1994 Code, sec. 70.62; Ordinance adopting 2021 Code)
It shall be unlawful for any person to cancel or solicit the cancellation of any traffic citation in any manner other than as provided by this article.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-103; 1994 Code, sec. 70.63)
Every record of traffic citations, complaints thereon, and warrants issued therefor required in this article shall be audited at least quarterly by the chief accountant, who shall submit a report of such audit together with a summary thereof to the mayor and city council. These reports shall be public records. For the purpose of this section, the chief accountant or his or her duly authorized representatives shall have access at all times to all necessary records, files, and papers of the municipal court, the traffic violations bureau, and the police department.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-104; 1994 Code, sec. 70.64; Ordinance adopting 2021 Code)
In the event that the form of citation provided under section 11.02.001 includes information and is sworn to as required under the general laws of this state in respect to a complaint charging commission of the offense alleged in the citation to have been committed, then the citation when filed with a court having jurisdiction shall be deemed to be a lawful complaint for the purpose of prosecution under this article.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-105; 1994 Code, sec. 70.65)
It shall be unlawful for any person to violate his or her written promise to appear given to an officer upon the issuance of a traffic citation regardless of the disposition of and charge for which citation was originally issued.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-106; 1994 Code, sec. 70.66)
Whenever any motor vehicle without a driver is found parked or stopped in violation of any of the restrictions imposed by this chapter or ordinance or by state law, the officer finding the 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 the vehicle a traffic citation requiring the driver to answer to the charge against him or her at a time specified in the citation to be not less than 24 hours nor more than ten days from the date of issuance of the citation.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-107; 1994 Code, sec. 70.67)
In any prosecution charging a violation of any law or regulation governing the standing or parking of a vehicle, proof that the particular vehicle described in the complaint was parked in violation of any such law or regulation, together with proof that the defendant named in the complaint was at the time of the parking the registered owner of the vehicle, shall constitute in evidence a prima facie presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle was the person who parked or placed the vehicle at the point where, and for the time during which, the violation occurred.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-108; 1994 Code, sec. 70.68)
In the event any person fails to comply with a traffic citation given to that person or attached to a vehicle or fails to make appearance pursuant to a summons directing any appearance in the municipal court, traffic violations bureau, or if any person fails or refuses to deposit bail or a cash escrow deposit as required, and within the time permitted by this Code of Ordinances or any other ordinance of the city, the clerk of the municipal court shall secure and issue a warrant for his or her arrest.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-109; 1994 Code, sec. 70.69; Ordinance adopting 2021 Code)
All fines or forfeitures collected upon conviction or upon the forfeiture of bail or cash escrow deposit of any person charged with a violation of any of the provisions of this chapter or any other applicable ordinance of the city shall be paid into the city treasury and deposited in the general fund.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-110; 1994 Code, sec. 70.70)
Failure, refusal, or neglect on the part of any judicial or other officer or employee receiving or having custody of any such fine or forfeiture, either before or after a deposit in the general fund, to comply with the foregoing provisions of this article shall constitute misconduct in office and shall be grounds for removal therefrom.
(1967 Code, sec. 18-111; 1994 Code, sec. 70.71)