To authorize the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to make Police Regulations for the government of said District Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Commissioners of the District of Columbia be, and they are hereby, authorized and empowered to make, modify, and enforce usual and reasonable police regulations in and for said District, as follows: First, For causing full inspection to be made, at any reasonable time, of the places where the business of pawnbroking, junk dealing, or secondhand clothing business may be carried on. Second. To regulate the storage of highly inflammable substances in the thickly populated portions of the District. Third. To locate the places where licensed vendors on streets and public places shall stand and change them as often as the public interests require, and to make all the necessary regulations governing their conduct upon the streets in relation to such business. Fourth. To make needful regulations for the orderly disposition of carriages and other vehicles assembled on streets or public places, and to require vehicles, upon such streets and avenues as they deem necessary, to pass along on the right side thereof. Fifth. To establish and regulate the charges to be made by owners of hacks and hackney carriages of any kind whatsoever. Sixth. To prohibit conducting droves of animals upon such streets and avenues as they may deem needful to public safety and good order. Seventh. To regulate the keeping and running at large of dogs and fowls. 80406-30-1 1 Eighth. To prohibit the deposit upon the streets or sidewalks of fruit, or any part thereof, or other substances or articles that might litter the same or cause injury to or impede pedestrians. Ninth. To regulate or prohibit loud noises with horns, gongs, or other instruments, or loud cries, upon the streets or public places, and to prohibit the use of any fireworks or explosives within such portions of the District as they may think necessary to public safety. Tenth. To regulate the movements of vehicles on the public streets and avenues for the preservation of order and protection of life and limb. Eleventh. To prescribe reasonable penalties for the violation of any of the regulations in this act mentioned; and said penalties may be enforced in any court of the District of Columbia having jurisdiction of minor offenses and in the same manner that such minor offenses are now by law prosecuted and punished. SEO. 2. That the regulations herein provided for shall, when adopted, be printed in one or more of the daily newspapers published in the District of Columbia, and no penalty prescribed for the violation of said regulations shall be enforced until thirty days after such publication. Approved, January 28, 1887. (24 Stat. 368.) The following joint resolution grants general power to make police regulations: JOINT RESOLUTIONS To regulate licenses to proprietors of theaters in the city of Washington, D. C., and for other purposes Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all licenses issued by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to proprietors of theaters or other public places of amusement in the City of Washington, D. C., and now in force, be, and the same are hereby terminated, unless the persons holding such licenses shall within 10 days after due notice comply with such regulations as may be prescribed for the public safety by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. SEO. 2. That the Commissioners of the District of Columbia are hereby authorized and empowered to make and enforce all such reasonable and usual police regulations, in additions to those already made under the act of January 26, 1887, as they may deem necessary for the protection of lives, limbs, health, comfort, and quiet of all persons, and the protection of all property within the District of Columbia. Approved February 26, 1892. (27 Stat. 394.) Authority to make police regulations governing firearms, explosives, etc. SEO. 4. That the Commissioners of the District of Columbia are hereby authorized and empowered to make and enforce all such usual and reasonable police regulations, in addition to those already made under the act of January 26, 1887, and the joint resolution approved February 26, 1892, as they may deem necessary for the regulation of firearms, projectiles, explosives, or weapons of any kind in the District of Columbia. Approved June 30, 1906. (34 Stat. pt. 1, 809.) Authority to make regulations governing the occupation of streets for business purposes The last proviso of the act of July 1, 1898, entitled "An act to vest in the Commissioners of the District of Columbia control of street parking in said District," is amended so as to read as follows: "That the Commissioners of the District of Columbia are authorized and directed to denominate portions of streets in the District of Columbia as business streets and to authorize the use, on such portions of streets, for business purposes by abutting property owners, under such general regulations as said commissioners may prescribe, of so much of the sidewalk and parking as may not be needed, in the judgment of said commissioners, by the general public, under the following conditions, namely: First, where in a portion of a street not already denominated a business street a majority of a frontage not less than three blocks in length is occupied and used for business purposes; and, second, where a portion of a street has already been denominated a business street and there exists adjoining such portion a block or more whose frontage is occupied and used for business purposes." Approved February 2, 1904. (33 Stat, pt. 1, 10.) |