Crime & Safety

Motorcycle Team Cites Dozens In Lafayette

Lafayette, it seems, is a "target-rich environment" for the city's new motorcycle officers — known to us only as officers Shaman and Vu.

It didn't take long for Lafayette's new two bike traffic enforcement team to bag an offender, Police Chief Mike Hubbard told his city manager, and more than 90 others quickly followed in just the first week of two-wheeled enforcement.

Hubbard informed Lafayette City Manager Steven Falk that the enforcement team took to the streets July 15 at 8:14:42 (presumably a.m.) and by 8:14:59 had netted its first scofflaw -"

(No matter what your position is on the enforcement effort, you have to admit it's a good thing to bag people who see nothing wrong with manipulating a mini-keyboard while navigating our roads in several tons of steel at 60 mph).

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Hubbard reported that "more than 90 people have been (un)lucky enough to obtain a personal meeting with " in their first week on patrolling local roads.

"While those who received citations aren’t thrilled, many, many more people are thanking them for working in their neighborhoods," Falk wrote in his weekly summary. "They’re waving to me with all five fingers," said one officer, "and are glad that we’re finally doing something about the high speeds on our winding two-lane streets."

Find out what's happening in Lamorindawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Hubbard said the motorcycle program enables the Lafayette police to enforce traffic regulations on roads that had been difficult if not impossible to work successfully, such as Moraga and St. Mary’s roads.

One driver reportedly asked Vu after being stopped for speeding on St. Mary’s Road: “Why did you stop me? Don’t you know that everyone speeds on this road?”

The chief said his department will deploy the motorcycles  starting in August on two-lane neighborhood roads on which it is difficult or impossible to use a patrol car.

"Once September rolls around, when school starts, we’ll concentrate our enforcement around the elementary schools and target drivers that threaten our kids," Hubbard told Falk.

The Police Department will work with schools to determine which locations have  posed the most problems, such as Moraga Road near Lafayette Elementary School, and Happy Valley Road.


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