Comments on SCPD OTS Grant Proposal

Email from Rick Hyman

From: "bikerick" [address suppressed for privacy]
To: "Santa-Cruz-Bikes" [ditto]
Cc:  [various]
Subject: Police seek $.5 million for bike enforcement & ed
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 21:56:50 -0800

On Tuesday afternoon, the Santa Cruz City Council will be asked to approve
the following:

 22.      Application for State of California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS)
Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Education and Enforcement Grant and
Engineering Pedestrian Management Grant.  (PD130)  (File not available)

Resolution authorizing the City Manager to apply for two State of California
Office of Traffic Safety <93>Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Education and
Enforcement Grants,<94> one for the Police Department in the amount of
$512,000, and one for the Public Works Department in the amount of $67,000,
and authorizing and directing the City Manager to execute any and all
documents to accept the grant in a form approved by the City Attorney.

http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/cc/archives/01/1-23meeting/1-23rpt/1-23a.html


Some aspects of this request:

It would be great to have money available for bicycle education.  The Police
Department proposes to contract with a non-profit agency to do bicycle
education to the tune of $165,000 over two years. My comment: the
application says that they will coordinate with the Community Traffic Safety
Coalition. This coordination is important because the Coalition currently
largely relies on volunteers to go into the classrooms.  If the City police
compete by paying folks to do the same teaching, the Community Traffic
Safety Coalition's program could collapse. Also, the Coalition can not reach
all schools; if the city police's program is the same as the Coalition's and
the City Police agree to reach all of the City schools, the Coalition could
then focus on the rest of the County

However, the money will also include the following: salaries for 2 community
safety offices and salary for one police officer as well as a motorcycle. It
is anticipated that the officer will work a night shift. My comment: it
seems if the City is to bolster bicycle and pedestrian safety the new
officer should work a day shift and have a bicycle available to ride.
However, maybe it's better that the new officer is on at night, so that
cyclists won't be unfairly targeted (see next comment)

The new officers are to enforce laws pertaining to bicycle operation and
pedestrians.  My comment: I believe in even-handed enforcement: if police
are going to increase enforcement against cyclists who break the law, then
they should also increase it against motorists who break the law and put
cyclists in danger. For example, if this new police officer is stationed at
an intersection and tickets cyclists who run red lights, he/she should also
ticket motorists who make right turns unsafely in front of cyclists, cutting
us off. A better description of the officer's task could be:  enforce laws
on motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians that will increase bicycle and
pedestrian safety.

One purpose of the grant request is to be able to respond to, investigate
and document traffic collisions. My comment: the Police will not always
respond to nor compile statistics on bike accidents.  This grant money
should be spent on having an officer available to take a report on ANY bike
accident called in.  Also, I believe that there was some discussion on this
forum awhile back about motorists who harass cyclists.  Some of this grant
money should be used to ensure that an officer is available to take and
follow up on an harassment report. And, there was discussion awhile back on
bicycle thefts.  Another task of these new officers could be to be proactive
in stemming bicycle thefts.

The City Bike Committee just got their first look at this Friday, three days
before the Council meeting. The County bike committee was never consulted,
let alone informed. My concluding comment: Perhaps, this grant is simply a
means for the police to bolster their staff (as noted the nighttime emphasis
seems misplaced, and the two community service officers are to be hired to
free regular officers to concentrate on enforcement).  However, if the
police are serious about bicycle safety and education, then they should
liaison with the established bike committees and reach out to the cycling
community at large to design and implement a program that is truly
even-handed and addresses cyclists needs and frustrations.

Rick Hyman