(a) Members of the Police Department are hereby authorized to remove or have removed a vehicle from a street to the nearest garage or other place of safety, including another place on a street, or to a garage designated or maintained by the Department, or otherwise maintained by this City, after they have first attempted to contact and notify the owner, and when:
(1) The vehicle is parked on a part of a Snow Emergency District or Route on which a parking prohibition is in effect.
(2) The vehicle is stalled on a part of a Snow Emergency District or Route on which there is a covering of snow, sleet or ice or on which there is a parking prohibition in effect and the person who was operating such vehicle does not appear to be removing it in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(3) The vehicle is parked in violation of any parking ordinance or provision of law and is interfering or about to interfere with snow removal operations.
(b) Whenever an officer removes or has removed 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 and to the Director of Public Service and Safety, 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 or has removed a vehicle from a street under this section and does not known 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 after the termination of the emergency, 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 Bureau of Motor Vehicles 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 name of the garage or place where the vehicle is stored.
(d) No person shall recover any vehicle removed in accordance with this section except as provided herein. Before the owner or person in charge of such vehicle shall be allowed to recover it from the place where it has been placed or impounded, he shall present to a member of the Department evidence of his identity and right to possession of the vehicle, shall sign a receipt for its return, shall pay the cost of removal, not to exceed ten dollars ($10.00) and shall pay any cost of storage accrued, not to exceed two dollars ($2.00) for each day or portion thereof. Until paid, these charges constitute a lien on the vehicle which may be enforced in the same manner as a garage keeper's lien in accordance with the provisions of the Ohio Revised Code.
(e) It shall be the duty of the Department to keep a record of each vehicle removed in accordance with this section. The record shall include a description of the vehicle, its license number, the date and time of its removal, where it was removed from, its location, the name and address of its owner and last operator, if known, its final disposition and the parking violation involved.
(f) This section shall be supplemental to any other provisions of law granting members of the Police Department authority to remove vehicles.
(Ord. 43-78. Passed 12-18-78.)