(A) Members of the Police Department are authorized to remove a vehicle from a street, sidewalk, alley, or other public place 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 following circumstances:
(1) When any vehicle is left unattended upon any bridge, viaduct, or parkway or where the 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 an extent as to be unable to provide for the custody or removal of the vehicle;
(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 illegally on a public street or a public place;
(5) When any vehicle has been apparently abandoned; and
(6) Whenever there is an accumulation of three or more unsatisfied offenses charged to any individual’s state license registration number and the motor vehicle bearing the number shall be found upon the streets of the city. The vehicle shall be driven or towed off the street under the direction of the Police Department to a storage site as may be designated by any police officer in charge. Should the owner of the vehicle appear to claim the same, he or she shall be booked for appearance in the City Court on all the aforementioned offenses. The vehicle shall not be returned to the owner until he or she has paid the towing charges, if any. The towing charges shall be set by the Chief of Police not to exceed an amount as set by the city from time to time.
(B) Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street as authorized in division (A) above and the officer knows or is able to ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle the name and address of the owner thereof, the officer shall immediately give or cause to be given notice in writing to the owner. The notice shall state the fact of the removal and the reasons therefor and the place to which the vehicle has been removed. In the event any vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy of the notice shall be given to the proprietor of the garage.
(C) Members of the police force are authorized, for the purpose of this section, to use force as may be necessary to enter any vehicle described in division (A) above and cause any vehicle to be placed in condition to be moved and may employ any reputable person engaged in the business of towing or storing vehicles for the purposes.
(D) Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street under division (A) above 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 provided in division (B) above 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 written report of the removal by mail to the Secretary of State, as provided by law for impounding of abandoned motor vehicles.
(Prior Code, § 70.086) Penalty, see § 70.999