Sec. 134-38. Impoundment.
(a) Notice. Whenever, as authorized in this chapter, a police officer orders the towing or removal of a vehicle and the police officer knows or is able to ascertain from the registration the name and address of the owner thereof, such police officer shall give or cause to be given notice in writing to such owner of the fact of such removal and the reasons thereof and of the place to which such vehicle has been towed or removed. If any such vehicle is stored in an authorized garage, a copy of such notice shall be given to the proprietor of such garage. The written notice shall also contain the following statement:
A police officer has ordered the towing or removal of your vehicle. If you feel that the impoundment of your vehicle was improper, you have ten days from the date of this notice to file a written request with the Aurora Municipal Court located at 14999 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, Colorado 80012, for a hearing regarding the propriety of this impoundment. Such hearing should be scheduled within three days (excluding Saturday, Sunday and city holidays) of the date your written request is received by the Aurora Municipal Court. The court shall be empowered to waive the towing and storage fees, if it is found that there was no reason to believe that legal authority for the removal of the vehicle existed. The retrieval of your vehicle from impoundment does not waive your right to a subsequent hearing and reimbursement. In conjunction with a request for a hearing, you may contact the watch commander of the Aurora Police Department for purposes of resolving a dispute concerning the impoundment of your vehicle. The Aurora Police Department will consider fee waivers and reimbursements only in exceptional circumstances, or by order of the Court. After an initial request for refund or fee waiver from the watch commander is denied, and the Aurora Municipal Court determines the impoundment was lawful, the Aurora Police Department will not consider any subsequent requests for waivers of fees. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT YOU RETRIEVE YOUR VEHICLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO MINIMIZE THE ACCRUAL OF STORAGE FEES.
The written notice shall be deposited in the United States mail by the close of the following business day at 5:00 p.m. MST from the date of the impoundment of the vehicle, excluding Saturday, Sunday and a city holiday. In lieu of mailing, the written notice may be personally handed to the owner.
(b) Hearing.
(1) If the owner of a vehicle files a written request with the court within ten days from the date of the notice of impoundment, described in subsection (a) of this section, a hearing shall be conducted before the municipal court. Such hearing should, to the extent reasonable, be conducted within three days of the court's receipt of the written demand for the hearing, unless such person requesting the hearing waives, in writing, the opportunity for a speedy hearing. Saturdays, Sundays and city holidays are to be excluded from the calculation of the three-day period. The sole issues before the court, at the hearing, shall be whether there was authority to impound the vehicle and whether the person demanding the hearing has the right to possession of the vehicle.
(2) As used in this subsection, the term "authority to impound" means such a state of facts as would lead a person of ordinary care and prudence to believe that the police officer who ordered the towing or removal of the vehicle had legal authority to order such towing or removal.
(3) The court shall conduct the hearing in an informal manner and shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence. The person demanding the hearing shall carry the burden of establishing that such person has the right to possession of the vehicle. The city shall carry the burden of establishing that there was authority to impound the vehicle. The burden of proof, for each issue, shall be by a preponderance of the evidence. The decision of the court shall be a final decision. Failure of the registered or legal owner or his or her agent to request a hearing in a timely manner or attend a scheduled post-seizure hearing shall be deemed a waiver of the right to such hearing.
(c) Reimbursement for towing and storage. Only upon affirmative determinations by the court that the person demanding the hearing has the right to possession of the subject vehicle and that the officer who ordered the towing of the vehicle did not have authority to impound such vehicle may the court order the City to either fully reimburse the owner of the impounded vehicle for all towing and storage fees paid by the owner or directly pay the towing and storage company for accrued fees.
(d) Applicability. The hearing and reimbursement provisions contained in subsections (b) and (c) of this section shall only be applicable to vehicles which have been impounded by order of a police officer.
(e) Compliance with time requirements. The time periods placed upon the City in this section are directory in nature. Failure of the City to strictly comply with the time periods shall not cause an automatic forfeiture of the City's rights under this Code. (Code 1979, § 37-25; Ord. No. 2021-41, § 1, 10-25-2021)