(a) The Director of Public Safety is hereby authorized to create an automotive vehicle pound to which automobiles and other automotive vehicles may be removed by police officers in the manner hereinafter provided.
(b) Police officers are authorized to provide for the removal and impounding of a vehicle under the following circumstances:
(1) When any vehicle is left unattended upon any street, bridge or causeway and is so illegally parked so as to constitute a hazard or obstruction to the normal movement of traffic, or so as to unreasonably interfere with street cleaning or snow removal operations;
(2) When any motor vehicle, including an abandoned junk motor vehicle, as defined in R.C. § 4513.63, is left on private residential property, as defined in R.C. § 4513.60, or on private agricultural property, for at least four consecutive hours without the permission of the person having the right to the possession of the property, or on a public street or other property open to the public for purposes of vehicular travel, or upon or within the right-of-way of any road or highway, for 48 consecutive hours or longer, without notification to the Police Chief of the reasons for leaving the vehicle in the place, except that when such a motor vehicle constitutes an obstruction to traffic, it may be ordered into storage immediately;
(3) When any vehicle has been stolen or operated without the consent of the owner;
(4) When any vehicle displays illegal license plates or fails to display the current lawfully required license plates;
(5) When any vehicle has been used in or connected with the commission of a felony;
(6) When any vehicle has been damaged or wrecked so as to be inoperable or violates equipment provisions of this traffic code whereby its continued operation would constitute a condition hazardous to life, limb or property;
(7) When any vehicle is left unattended due to the removal of an ill, injured or arrested operator;
(8) When any vehicle has been operated by any person who has failed to stop in case of an accident or collision;
(9) When any vehicle has been operated by any person who is driving without a lawful license or while his or her license has been suspended or revoked;
(10) When any vehicle is found for which two or more citation tags for violations of this traffic code have been issued and the owner or operator thereof has failed to respond to the citation tags as lawfully required.
(c) A reasonable fee to cover the cost of removal, in addition to a reasonable storage fee for each day or fraction of a day any impounded vehicle is stored, shall be assessed against the owner or any other person claiming the impounded vehicle.
(d) Any vehicle removed under authority of division (a)(2) of this section shall be ordered into storage and/or disposed of as provided under R.C. §§ 4513.60 et seq. Any other vehicle removed under authority of this section shall be ordered into storage and the Police Department shall forthwith notify the registered vehicle owner of the fact of the removal and impounding, reasons therefor and the place of storage. Any person desiring to redeem an impounded vehicle shall appear at the Police Department to furnish satisfactory evidence of identity and ownership or right to possession. Prior to issuance of a release form, the claimant, owner or operator shall either pay the amount due for any fines for violations on account of which the vehicle was impounded or, as the court may require, post a bond in an amount set by the court, to appear to answer to the violations. The pound operator shall release the vehicle upon the receipt of the release form and payment of all towage and storage charges.
(e) In case protest is made against the payment of any impounding or storage fee, the police officer or person in charge of the impounded vehicle, upon satisfactory evidence of the identity and ownership of the person claiming the impounded vehicle, and upon the furnishing of a bond in an amount as set by rule of court by the owner or driver of the vehicle, to the satisfaction of the Clerk of Courts, conditioned upon the owner or driver appearing before the court to answer to the violation on account of which the vehicle had been impounded, shall surrender the impounded vehicle to the claimant, and it shall thereupon be the duty of the police officer having knowledge of the facts forthwith to institute the proper proceedings in the court, charging the owner or driver of the vehicle with the violation for which the vehicle was impounded.
(f) Vehicles impounded pursuant to this section which are unclaimed shall be disposed of pursuant to R.C. §§ 737.32 et seq. or § 4513.62.
(g) No owner or operator shall remove an impounded vehicle from the place of storage without complying with the above procedure. Possession of a vehicle which has been impounded and unlawfully taken from the place of storage, by the owner or operator, shall constitute prima facie evidence that it was so removed by the owner or operator.
(Ord. 67-57, passed 12-16-1957; Ord. 7-74, passed 2-4-1974; Ord. 4-81, passed 1-5-1981)