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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-02-20 City Council (14)TO: City of Palo Alto City Manager’s Report HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: POLICE DATE:FEBRUARY 20, 2001 "CMR:132:01 SUBJECT:APPROVAL OF AMENDMENTS TO THE PALO ALTO MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTERS 10.04 AND 10.08 PROVIDING ENFORCEMENT AUTHORIZATION FOR POLICE DEPARTMENT COMMUNITY SERVICE. OFFICERS RECOMMENDATIONS Staff recommends that Chapters 10.04 and 10.08 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code be amended to give Police Department Community Service Officers (CSOs) the authority to enforce City ordinances through the issuance of administrative citations. BACKGROUND In May 1999, Council amended the Municipal Code to establish administrative citations, penalties and remedies for Municipal Code violations. Palo Alto Municipal Code Section 10.04.045 authorizes Police Department CSOs to enforce all city and state laws applicable to the parking and towing of vehicles, as well as the laws associated with bike lanes and paths. Police Officers and Animal Control Officers are currently the only classification of employees that have the authority to enforce ordinances concerning barking dogs and animals off leash. Police Officers are the only members of the Police Department with the authority to enforce violations of the City’s noise ordinance and leaf blower ordinance, and offenses regarding the blowing of debris into roadways and adjacent properties. The proposed amendments would allow CSOs to enforce aforementioned violations using the administrative citation process. DISCUSSION Currently, CSOs are used by the Police Department to respond to non-emergency, minor crime incident and accident calls-for-service. Typical CSO responses would be to handle traffic CMR:132:01 Page 1 of 3 control, minor criminal offenses with no suspect information, and minor accidents. They also respond to noise complaints but do not currently have citation authority. They do not respond to serious criminal incidents, calls that may require an arrest, violent offenses, alarms, disturbances or other emergency situations. They are therefore usually available to respond to lower priority calls more quickly than Police Officers. The Police Department is responsible for the enforcement of a number of other ordinances that staff believes can be handled by CSOs. These include the leaf blower noise ordinance that became effective on January 1, 2001; leash law and barking dog violations; blowing of debris into streets and adjacent properties offenses; and construction and other noise violations. By providing the three existing CSOs and the newly authorized temporary CSO with enforcement powers for these infractions through the administrative process, staff believes that the CSOs will be able to assist in a more proactive enforcement approach to these violations. This is particularly true as they provide coverage Mondays through Saturdays from6:30 a.m. to 12 midnight. Saturdays and evening hours are usually the busiest for Police Officers and Animal . Control Officers are not on duty. .As a result, staff is recommending that Chapters 10.04 and 10.08 of the Municipal Code be amended accordingly. RESOURCE IMPACT There is no resource impact associated with this recommendation. POLICY IMPLICATIONS These amendments are consistent with existing City policy. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT This is not a project under the Califomia Environmental Quality Act and environmental review is not required. CMR:132:01 Page 2 of 3 ATTACHMENT Amendment to Chapters 10.04 and 10.08 PREPARED BY: DON HARTNETT" Police Lieutenant DEPARTMENT HEAD: PATRICK DWYE~ ~ Chief of Police CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: A~Y~~SE ~w Assistant to the City Manager CMR:132:01 Page 3 of 3 ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO AMENDING TITLE I0, CHAPTER 10.04, SECTION I0.’04.045 AND SECTION 10.08.025 OF THE PALO ALTO MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO POLICE COMMUNITY SERVICE OFFICERS Recitals: I.The Council recognizes that Police Department Community Service Officers already provide invaluable support service to police officers in directing pedestrian and vehicular traffic and in enforcing bicycle traffic and bicycle lane traffic laws. 2__~.The Council has determined that augmented support should be provided to police officers by authorizing Community Service Officers to enforce additional municipal ordinance provisions through the issuance of administrative citations. THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO DOES ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: Section I. Title I0, Chapter 10.04, section 10.04.045 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code is hereby amended to read as follows: 10.04.045 Community Service Officer. "Community service officer" means a special police officer of the city authorized to direct pedestrian and vehicular traffic and to enforce thosestatutes and ordinances relatinq to vehicular traffic other subjects as may be specifically desiqnated by ordinance. Section 2. Title i0. Chapter 10.08, section 10.08.025 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code is hereby amended to read as follows: 10.08.025 Community service officers. (a) Each community service officer shall be appointed by the city manager and shall be issued a badge plainly designating ~i-s that office and shall display that badge and shall wear an insignia plainly designating that- office while engaged in the discharge of assigned duties. Be Each community service officer shall be sworn in as special police officer of the city and may operate authorized emergency vehicles of the police department of the city; provided, however, that a community service officer is not ~w .......nt ....cityotherwise authorized to exercise the powers or perform the duties of a peace officer and is not entitled to the benefits or statutory rights of a peace. officer. ~ In his posscss~n ~~ ~ i ¯ ~-~- ~-~.~"~ Each community service officer is authorized to issue an administrative citation pursuant to section 1.12.030 of this code whenever the community service officer has reasonable cause to believe that a violation of this code which the community service officer is authorized by the chief of police to enforce. (c) Each community service officer is charged with the duty of enforcing all laws of the city and of the state applicable to bicycles and bicyclists and to enforce all traffic laws of the city and of the state applicable to traffic within bicycle lanes and bicycle paths paths. In addition, each community service officer is authorized to direct pedestrian and vehicular traffic and to enforce through administrative citation those sections of this code as may be specifically designated by the chief of police. (d) It is unlawful for any person to resist or interfere with a community service officer in the discharge of ~ that community service officer’s assigned duties. Section 3. The Council hereby finds and determines that the authorizations adopted by this Ordinance do not constitute a project requiring environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. Section 4. The effective date of this ordinance shall be the thirty first day after its adoption, pursuant to Palo Alto Municipal Code section 2.04.350.