CHAPTER 10.72
PENALTY AND ARREST PROCEDURE
Sections:
10.72.020 Procedure upon arrest.
10.72.030 Notice on illegally parked vehicle.
10.72.040 Failure to comply with notice attached to parked vehicle.
10.72.050 Presumption in reference to illegal parking.
10.72.060 When complaint to be issued.
10.72.070 Disposition of traffic fines and forfeitures.
10.72.010 Penalties.
Unless another penalty is expressly provided by law, every person found to have violated any provision of this chapter shall be punished for the commission of a civil violation of City ordinance as provided in Section 1.01.110(A). (Ord 644 §1, 1983: Ord 215 §89, 1952) (Ed. Note: Changes made during codification for hyperlinking)
10.72.020 Procedure upon arrest.
Upon making an arrest for violation of the traffic ordinances of this City, the Police Officer shall take the name, address, and operator’s license number of the alleged violator, and the registered number of the motor vehicle involved and shall issue to him in writing on a form provided in accordance with RCW 46.64.010 and 46.64.015, and shall be serially numbered, a notice to answer to the charge against him at a place and at a time at least twenty-four hours after the arrest to be specified in the notice. The officer, upon receiving the written promise of the alleged violator to answer as specified in the notice, may release the person from custody. (Ord 215 §90, 1952)
10.72.030 Notice on illegally parked vehicle.
Whenever any motor vehicle without operator is found parked, angle parked, or stopped in violation of any of the restrictions imposed by ordinance of this City, the officer finding the vehicle shall take its registration number and may take any other information displayed on the vehicle which may identify its user, and shall conspicuously affix to the vehicle a notice in writing, on a form provided by the City, for the operator to answer to the charge against him within twenty-four hours, at a place specified in the notice. The officer shall deposit the original or a copy of each traffic citation with the Police Judge of the City having jurisdiction over the offense or with its traffic violations bureau. Each traffic citation form shall be accounted for to the Police Judge or traffic violations bureau; and in the event any traffic citation form is voided for any cause it shall be deposited as herein provided. (Ord 215 §91, 1952)
10.72.040 Failure to comply with notice attached to parked vehicle.
If a violator of the restrictions on stopping, standing, or parking under the traffic laws or ordinances does not appear in response to a notice affixed to the motor vehicle within a period of twenty-four hours, the clerk of the Traffic Court shall send to the owner of the motor vehicle to which the notice was affixed a letter informing him of the violation and warning him that in the event the letter is disregarded for a period of five days, a complaint will be filed and warrant of arrest issued. (Ord 215 §92, 1952)
10.72.050 Presumption in reference to illegal parking.
In any prosecution charging a violation of any law or regulation governing the standing or parking of a vehicle, proof that the particular vehicle described in the complaint was parked in violation of any such law or regulation, together with proof that the defendant named in the complaint was at the time of the parking the registered owner of the vehicle, shall constitute in evidence prima facie presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle was the person who parked or placed the vehicle at the point where, and for the time during which, the violation occurred. (Ord 215 §93, 1952)
10.72.060 When complaint to be issued.
In the event any person fails to comply with a notice given to the person or attached to a vehicle or fails to make appearance pursuant to a summons directing an appearance in the Traffic Court, or if any person fails or refuses to deposit bail as required and within the time permitted by ordinance, the clerk of the Traffic Court shall forthwith have a complaint entered against such person and secure and issue a warrant for his arrest. (Ord 215 §94, 1952)
10.72.070 Disposition of traffic fines and forfeitures.
All fines or forfeitures collected upon conviction or upon the forfeiture of bail of any person charged with a violation of any of the provisions of this title shall be paid into the general fund of the City. (Ord 215 §95, 1952)
10.72.080 Official misconduct.
Failure, refusal, or neglect on the part o any judicial or other officer or employee receiving or having custody of any such fine or forfeiture of bail, either before or after a deposit in the City general fund, to comply with the provisions of Section 10.72.070 shall constitute misconduct in office and shall be ground for removal therefrom, provided appropriate removal action is taken pursuant to state law relating to removal of public officials. (Ord 215 §96, 1952)
10.72.090 Authority to impound vehicles.
A. Members of the Police Department are hereby authorized to remove a vehicle from a street or highway 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 circumstances hereinafter enumerated:
1. When any vehicle is left unattended upon any bridge, viaduct or causeway, or in any place 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 or persons in charge of the vehicle are by reason of physical injury incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide for its custody or removal;
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.
B. Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street as authorized in this section, he shall report the abandoned vehicle to the chief of the Washington State Patrol, and if the officer knows or is able to ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle the name and address of the registered and legal owner thereof, the officer shall immediately give or cause personal notice to be given in writing to the owner, if any record exists of the registered or legal owner in the state of Washington, of the fact of the removal and the reasons therefor and of the place to which the vehicle has been removed. The abandoned vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy of the notice shall be given to the proprietor of the garage.
C. Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street under this section 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 hereinbefore provided, 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 state department whose duty it is to register motor vehicles, and shall file a copy of the notice with the proprietor of any public garage in which the vehicle may be stored. The notice shall include a complete description of the vehicle, the date, time, and place from which removed, the reasons for the removal, and name of the garage or place where the vehicle is stored.
D. Any cost in the removal thereof shall be paid by the owner of the vehicle so removed, and the same shall be a lien upon the vehicle. (Ord 215 §97, 1952)