(A) It shall be the duty of the police force and the members thereof are at all times within the city specially empowered to suppress riots, mobs, and insurrections; disburse unlawful and dangerous assemblages and assemblages which obstruct the free passage of public streets, sidewalks, parks, and places; protect the rights of persons and property; guard the public health; preserve order at elections and public meetings; direct the movement of traffic; administer traffic rules; conduct investigations and make reports; remove all nuisances in public streets, sidewalks, parks, or highways; arrest all street beggars and vagrants; provide proper police assistance at fires; assist, advise, and protect strangers and travelers in public streets or at railroad stations; carefully observe and inspect dance houses, resorts, and all places of business under license or required to have the same; suppress and restrain all houses of ill fame or prostitution and houses where common prostitutes resort or reside, all lottery or policy shops, all gambling houses, cockpits, and all unlawful or disorderly conduct or practice; and enforce and prevent the violation of laws, the provisions of this code, and the ordinances in force in the city.
(B) (1) The members of the police force shall report immediately all dangerous public places and all cases of streetlight outages to the officer in charge of the station, who shall report the matter, in turn, to the Electric and Light Division; report to the station all defects in sidewalks, which shall, in turn, be reported through the Chief to the Supervisor of Public Works, and in cases of accident shall in the same manner cause them to be reported to the City Attorney together with the names and statements of witnesses of the accidents; and on observing or being informed of any opening or excavation in any public way, to require the persons making the opening or excavation or working therein to exhibit the authority or permission for the work.
(2) If none has been given by the proper authority, police officers shall without delay report the same to the station to be reported through the Chief to the Supervisor of Public Works.
(Prior Code, § 34.033)