§ 10.08.210. Authority to Impound Vehicles.

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 this 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 or persons in charge of the vehicle are by reason of physical injury incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide for its custody or removal;

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 vehicle is parked in violation of Section 10.48.080 or 10.48.090;

5.

When any driver is arrested and it is considered necessary to impound the vehicle for safekeeping of the vehicle and its contents;

6.

When there is probable cause to believe that any vehicle may have been used in the commission of a crime and it is impounded for evidentiary purposes.

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 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.

D.

The registered owner of the vehicle shall be liable for all reasonable and necessary charges arising from the impounding of vehicles under this section.

(Prior Code § 9.12.160)