Ordinance No. 470

 

 

ORDINANCE NO.  470

 

AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE REGULATING PRIVATE STREET PATROL SERVICES AND PERSONNEL

                                                            

 

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Riverside, State of California, do ordain as follows:

 

Section 1.  This ordinance is adopted pursuant to Section 7523 of the Business and Professional Code and is necessary to meet local needs of the county for regulation of private street patrol services and personnel and to sustain the county's costs of such regulation.

 

Section 2.  "Private street patrol service" means any person, firm, or corporation who for a consideration furnishes or agrees to furnish to another the services of a watchman, guard, patrolman, private policemen, or other person to protect persons or property or to prevent the theft, loss, concealment, or destruction of or damage to property of any kind, whether by constant observation or intermittent inspection by means of pedestrian or vehicular patrol on the streets or otherwise, or who performs any of such services for another except as a part of employment exclusively by one employer.

 

Section 3.  "Private patrolman" means any person who not only is employed by or is an agent of a private street patrol service but who also performs any of the services described in Section 2, and includes every owner, partner, officer and manager of a private street patrol service whether or not he personally performs any of such services.

 

Section 4.  The registration provisions of this ordinance do not apply to any person in the performance of any service required of him as an employee of any governmental agency or as a member of any legally constituted police reserve organization thereof, nor to the furnishing of protection incidental to the transportation for hire of money, securities, negotiable instruments and similar valuables, nor to escorts of funeral processions.

 

Section 5.  No private street patrol service shall be maintained or shall function or shall employ a private patrolman without first having obtained a certificate of registration as herein required and no private patrolman shall accept employment with any private street patrol service or perform any service therefor, without first having obtained a current certificate of registration as herein required.

 

Section 6.  Any person, firm or corporation holding a current license from the State of California as a private patrol operator may apply to the Sheriff of Riverside County for a certificate of registration as a private street patrol service.  Such application shall be in the form required by the Sheriff and shall included or be accompanied by such information as he may uniformly require, including, but not limited to, the names of all owners, partners, officers, and managers thereof, their fingerprints and photographs and substantial evidence of their good moral character.  The application shall be accompanied by the fee or fees herein required.

 

Section 7.  Any person may make application to the Sheriff for a certificate of registration as a private patrolman.  Such application shall be in the form required by the Sheriff and shall include or be accompanied by such information as he may require, including the applicant's fingerprints and photograph and substantial evidence of his good moral character.  The application shall be accompanied by the fee or fees herein required, and by the written request of the private street patrol service by which the applicant is to be employed or of which he is an owner, partner, officer or manager, that a certificate of registration be issued to him.

 

Section 8.  The Sheriff shall make such investigation as may be necessary to satisfy himself that the applicant for certificate as a private patrolman, and each owner, partner, officer or manager of the applicant for certificate as a private street patrol service, is a person of good moral character, and thereupon shall issue the appropriate certificate of registration which shall expire in one year unless sooner revoked.  The certificate shall be issued in any case not later than one month after the filing of the application.  A provisional certificate of registration may be issued for a private patrolman for a period not exceeding one month, pending completion of the investigation, and may be revoked at at any time without cause. No certificate of registration for a private patrolman shall be issued except for employment by a private street patrol service then holding a current certificate of registration.

 

Section 9.  The certificate for a private patrolman shall be of usual identification card size, shall contain his name and the name of the private street patrol service by whom he is employed, the date of its expiration, and shall be carried on his person at all times when he is performing the services for which registration is required.  On termination of his employment, he shall immediately deliver the certificate to his employer, who shall forthwith surrender the same to the Sheriff.  Within the period for which such certificate was issued, a certificate may be reissued to the same person for the remainder of said period upon the written request of the same or a different employer unless cause for revocation then exists.

 

Section 10.  The certificate for a private street patrol service shall contain the date of its expiration, the name and address of the place of business thereof and the names of all the owners, partners, officers and managers, and shall be displayed at all times at said place of business.  On termination of the service, or upon revocation of the service's state license or its expiration without renewal, the certificate shall be automatically revoked and shall forthwith be surrendered to the Sheriff.  On change of address or change of ownership, or change of officer or manager personnel, or upon request of the Sheriff for other cause, the certificate shall be forthwith delivered to the Sheriff for change or correction or reissue.

 

Section 11.  The initial registration fee for a private street patrol service shall be $50.00 for one year, and for a private patrolman shall be $40.00 for one year.  The fee for each annual renewal of registration shall be $25.00 for a private street patrol service and $10.00 for a private patrolman.  A fee of $2.00 for each amendment or reissue of a certificate of a private street patrol service, and a fee of $2.00 for each reissue of a certificate of a private patrolman, shall be paid at the time thereof.  There shall be no refunds.

 

Section 12.  A certificate of registration shall be renewable annually upon payment of the applicable fee and application made to the Sheriff not less than 15 days before the expiration of the current certificate, containing such current information as the Sheriff may require, and provided that cause for revocation, or for refusal of an initial application, does not exist.  The Sheriff may delay issuance of the certificate for 15 days, pending completion of such investigation as he may deem necessary.

 

Section 13.  A certificate of registration may be suspended or revoked by the Sheriff upon any ground specified in Sections 7551 of the Business and Professions Code as if such certificate were the license therein mentioned, or for violation of this ordinance.  A Certificate of registration may be refused by the Sheriff for lack of proof of good moral character upon any ground specified in Section 7528 of the Business and Professions Code.

 

Section 14.  Whenever the Sheriff refuses a certificate of registration, or revokes or suspends such certificate, he shall give immediate notice in person or by mail to the applicant or the holder of the certificate.  Within 10 days thereafter the person or organization aggrieved thereby may appeal to the Board of Supervisors from the decision of the Sheriff by filing with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors a written request for hearing.  At its next regular meeting the Board shall fix a date for hearing not less than 5 nor more than 10 days thereafter, unless both appellant and Sheriff consent to an earlier or later hearing, and shall cause notice to be given to the appellant and the Sheriff, which may be by mail or in person, not less than 5 days before the hearing, unless notice be waived.  At the time fixed for hearing, the Board shall hear and determine the appeal, unless a postponement be agreed to by the appellant, the Sheriff and the Board.  Unless the Board shall reverse or modify the action of the Sheriff, his decision shall be deemed sustained.

 

Section 15.  As a part of an application for a certificate of registration as a private street patrol service, the Sheriff may require the applicant to specify the area, in the unincorporated territory of the county, within which the activities of the service are to be carried on.  Such area may be enlarged, decreased or altered by the service at any time by giving the Sheriff prior written notice specifying the change.  At no time shall the service or its employees carry on such activities except within the limits of the area currently designated in writing to the Sheriff.  Nothing in this section shall be construed as vesting any exclusive right in any private street patrol service to carry on its activities in any particular area, nor to authorize the Sheriff to limit such a service to any particular area.

 

Section 16.  No private patrolman shall wear or display any badge, insignia or uniform which is identical to or closely resembles the badge, insignia or uniform prescribed for employees of the Sheriff or members of the Sheriff's Reserve.

 

Section 17.  The Sheriff may specify the police equipment, including weapons, which a private patrolman may wear or carry while on duty, and no police equipment or weapon not so specified shall be worn or carried.

 

Section 18.  Every private patrolman shall, while on duty as such, wear on the left breast portion of his outer garment a rectangular insignia bearing the words "Private Patrol" in letters at least one‑half inch high.  A motor vehicle used by a private street patrol service shall, if it bears any insignia or designation of the service, display as a part thereof or adjacent there to the words "Private Patrol" in letters at least 4 inches high.  Such a vehicle shall not be painted black and white or any similar combination of contrasting colors or shades so as to resemble, either by day or night, the typical appearance of black and white police vehicles commonly used by public agencies, nor shall any such vehicle bear any insignia in the form or shape of a star, shield, seal or other emblem similar to those commonly used on vehicles of public agencies.

 

Section 19.  Every private patrolman shall immediately report orally to the nearest Sheriff's office or police station any crime committed against property or person which he may discover while on duty, and shall promptly thereafter file a full written report with the proper authorities.

 

Section 20.  Violation of this ordinance shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by fine of not more than $500.00 or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

 

 

ADOPTED:              2/14/‑61 (Eff.:  3/13/61)

AMENDED:470.1

                470.2       (Eff.: 2/10/72)

                470.3       (Eff.:  4/13/00 - Repealed in its Entirety)