Alexandria Police Ticket Bicyclists

[Jason Long]

Well put Jim.  If we all use a little common sense and be responsible for our actions, I'm sure we'll be "ticket free."  The cops would not be there en masse if there wasn't a problem of some sort causing concern in that local community.

"Laity, James A." <James_A._Laity at omb.eop.gov> wrote:  David, I appreciate your sentiment, but I think you don't understand how
law enforcement works. Law enforcement authorities always have
discretion to use common sense in enforcing the law, and most use it
wisely. However, no law enforcement agency will spell out "bright line"
limits for the use of that discretion. To do so would 1) appear to be
re-writing the law, which is not within the authority of law
enforcement, and 2) invite numerous legal challenges if an officer
ticketed someone for doing something which a law breaker could later
argue "should have been allowed" under the advertised discretion policy.


Officer Wortham very properly informed the Alex bicycling community what
the law says (passed by the VA legislature), and that the police would
enforce the law. To do anything else would have been irresponsible.
This does not mean that police officers will cease to use common sense
in enforcing it. It does mean that cyclists should not assume that if
they "almost" come to a stop, they are immune from getting a ticket.
The safest thing would be to always come to a complete stop. If you do
less, you are taking a chance of getting a ticket. The more egregious
the violation, the greater the chance.

By the way, I say this as an avid cyclist who has himself been warned by
the Alex city police about not stopping at stop signs. They have always
been polite and professional and are just doing their job. 

Jim Laity


-----Original Message-----
From: bsc-bounces+jlaity=omb.eop.gov at bicycle.alexandria.va.us
[mailto:bsc-bounces+jlaity=omb.eop.gov at bicycle.alexandria.va.us] On
Behalf Of David James
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 8:33 PM
To: Eliz Wright
Cc: Bike Committee
Subject: Re: Alexandria Police Ticket Bicyclists

Office Wortham's response is just the kind of un-common sense approach
that threatens to give the whole APD operation a bad rap, regardless of
its obvious merits.

If the police were to enforce the same "complete stop" rule on every
motorist at every stop sign in this city, they would be writing 10s
(maybe
100s) of thousands of tickets a day. Simple common sense suggests that
cyclists executing a serious slowdown (i.e. the equivalent of a rolling
stop in a vehicle) and taking care to look both ways are not a danger to
either themselves or others.

I hope what we are seeing in this email is just one officer's slavish
adherence to the exact letter of a law that has always been interpreted
with considerable flexibility when it comes to motor vehicles, as it
should be for cyclists as well.

David James

On Wed, October 10, 2007 7:49 pm, Eliz Wright wrote:
> From the APD~
>
> Carl Wortham wrote: To: Eliz Wright 
> CC: Yon Lambert, Dianne Gittins
> Subject: Re: Alexandria Police Ticket Bicyclists
> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:05:11 -0400
>
>
> Eliz,
>
> As stated in VA Code Section 46.2-830...Bicyclist must obey all 
> traffic signs, signals, lights, and markings.
>
> Therefore, I'll be looking for a cyclist to come to a complete stop at

> each and every stop sign and traffic signal. During the previous weeks

> of bike education, we have given approximately 600 warnings, so most 
> folks are aware of what we are looking for in regards to a stop. My 
> goal this weekend is to not write any tickets at all, but I'm sure 
> it'll be a few that didn't get the word.
>
> Ofc. Carl E. Wortham, 1653
> Alexandria Police Department
> FOB/COPS/Bike Coordinator
> Office: 703-838-6360 x1353
>
>
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  Courtney & Jason
Alexandria, VA


       
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