(a) Authority to Issue Commissions. The Director of Public Safety, pursuant to Ohio R.C. 737.05, is hereby authorized to commission private police officers, not in the classified service of the City, under such rules and regulations as Council grants.
(b) Rules and Regulations; Bonds. The Director is hereby authorized to prescribe rules and regulations for private police officers. Such private police officers shall each give a bond of one thousand dollars ($1,000) to the City, which bond shall be issued by a bonding company authorized to do business in the State and which bond shall be subject to the approval of the Director of Public Safety and the Director of Law. In addition, such private police officers shall pay an annual fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00).
(c) Uniforms.
(1) The Director of Public Safety shall prescribe such uniform, badge and/or other distinguishing uniform marks for private police officers as he or she may see fit in order to distinguish such private police officers from regular police officers of the Division of Police.
(2) No person who is not a member of the Division of Police or the Division of Fire shall wear a uniform, cap, badge or button similar to, or in imitation of, the official uniform, cap, badge or button in use at the time by the members of the Divisions of Police and Fire of the City.
(3) No person who desires to provide special police, watchmen or detective services, either for himself or herself or for hire to others, shall wear any distinctive uniform, cap, badge or button, nor shall any employee of such person, engaged for such purpose, wear the same, until the form, design and color thereof are first submitted to and approved by the Director of Public Safety and until a record thereof sufficient to identify the users thereof is made by the Director.
(d) Duration of Commission; Citizenship; Firearms. No commission as a private police officer shall be valid for a greater period of time than one year from the date of issuance and no person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be commissioned as a private police officer. The issuance of a private police commission shall not in itself constitute authority to carry firearms. Applicants shall comply with the laws of the State regarding the carrying of firearms.
(e) Qualifications of Applicants. No person shall be commissioned as a private police officer unless he or she is licensed to do so. An applicant for such a commission shall:
(1) Be at least twenty-one years of age and an American citizen, or have declared his or her intention to become a citizen;
(2) Be of sound physique, with good eyesight and not subject to vertigo, heart trouble or any other infirmity of body or mind which might render him or her unfit for the safe carrying out of the duties of such a commission. Each applicant shall supply an affidavit to the Director of Public Safety, as part of his or her application for a commission, stating that he or she is free from any and all of such infirmities.
(3) Be able to read, write and speak the English language;
(4) Be clean in dress and person, of good moral character and not addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors and/or drugs;
(5) Produce, on forms to be provided by the Director, affidavits of his or her good character from two reputable residents of the City or the County who have known him or her personally, as well as a further testimonial, on a form provided for that purpose, from his or her last employer, unless, in the estimation of the Director, sufficient reason is given for its omission;
(6) Fill out, upon a form to be provided by the Director, a statement giving and indicating his or her full name; residence; places of residence for ten years previous to moving to his or her present address; age; race; height; color of eyes and hair; place of birth; length of time he or she has resided in the County; whether or not he or she is a citizen of the United States; place of previous employment; whether he or she is single or married; whether or not he or she has ever been arrested or convicted of a felony or misdemeanor; whether or not he or she has been summoned to court; and whether or not his or her driving license has ever been revoked, and, if so, for what cause. Such statement shall be signed and sworn to by the applicant and filed with the Director as a permanent record. The Director is hereby authorized to establish additional rules and regulations covering the issuance of commissions of private police officers, not inconsistent herewith, as may be necessary and reasonable.
(7) Comply with Ohio R.C. 109.77 and 109.78 setting forth training requirements and all statutes of the State in force at the time the commission is applied for.
(f) Photograph of Applicant; Police Check. Each applicant for a commission as a private police officer shall file with his or her application three unretouched color photographs of himself or herself, in such position as the Director may direct, taken within thirty days preceding the filing of his or her application. Photographs shall be of a size which may be easily attached to his or her commission, one of which shall be attached to the commission when issued. The others shall be filed with the application in the office of the Director. The photograph shall be so attached to the commission that it cannot be removed and another photograph substituted without detection. Where the application for a commission is denied, two copies of the photograph shall be returned to the applicant by the Director. Each commissioned private police officer shall, upon demand of an inspector of licenses, or a police officer of the Division of Police, exhibit his or her license and photograph for inspection. All applications for a commission as a private police officer shall be notarized. Failure to list arrests and/or any other information desired by the Director shall be considered to be falsification of the application and the applicant shall be subject to arrest. All applicants for special police work as such private police officers shall be fingerprinted and the Director, through the Division of Police, shall cause a complete record check to be made of the applicant's character or obtain any other information he or she may desire.
(g) Identification. An identification card, with a photograph attached, as outlined in subsection (f) hereof, shall be carried by a private police officer at all times while he or she is on duty in the City in order to identify him or her to the Division of Police, showing that he or she has been qualified to the satisfaction of the Director and the City.
(Ord. 1975-44. Passed 5-24-76; Ord. 1977-11. Passed 3-28-77.)