City ‘quad squad’ targets illegal ATVs, bikes

William Kaempffer

NEW HAVEN — The police department has launched what has been informally dubbed a “quad squad” in an effort to crack down on illegal dirt bikes and ATVs.

Community leaders have complained for years about the vehicles and the police chief says they have roared up and down city streets with impunity — until now.

Over the weekend, the department seized 10 dirt bikes and two ATVs, along with a stolen motorcycle, after dedicating 12 officers each day to finding, stopping and confiscating the all-terrain vehicles which speed, dodge and weave through traffic on crowded city streets, tear up parks and cause Eula Pendarvis’ mirror to rattle on her wall when they race in packs by her house in the Hill neighborhood.

“When they crank it up, it’s bad. It’s awful around here,” said Pendarvis, who has lived on the corner of Greenwich Avenue for 32 years. “Some people make the neighborhood good, and some tear it down.”

The riders, particularly in warmer weather, have been a nuisance, but also, on occasion, reckless joyrides have ended in tragedy. Last July, a 15-year-old Newhallville youth was killed when he ran a stop sign near his house and slammed into a work van.

The new effort is somewhat of a departure from the department’s past no-chase policy, which Police Chief James Lewis suggests might emboldened riders.

Pursuit remains a last resort — the preference is to box them in or grab them as riders gas up — but that option is now on the table, he said. Any time the quad squad is out, a supervisor will be with them to monitor situations and weigh risks.

The quad quandary is dominating the blogosphere in New Haven. On seeclickfix.com, an interactive Web site to air community concerns, there were 184 posts after one citizen uploaded pictures of quads racing down East Street and some openly wondered why police weren’t doing more.

The dilemma for law enforcement has been whether pursuing the ATVs creates too much public risk. An underlying fear for officers is liability if an accident occurs and, according to Lewis, a concern that the community will blame police if someone is hurt trying to flee.

“My argument is: They’re out there doing really, really dangerous things without us chasing them. These kids have to be protected from themselves,” Lewis said.

And that concern doesn’t appear to be unfounded.

While Howard Avenue resident Alice O’Brien views the ATVs as “aggravating” and “very dangerous,” she is still angry that police chased a pack of dirt bikes and quads that drove up on the sidewalk, sending playing children scrambling.

In another case, when a fleeing SUV got into a serious accident downtown after one of its occupants tried to pass a bad check at a nearby bank, a high-ranking elected official in the city blamed police for the wreck, Lewis said.

That never would have happened, Lewis said, in southern California, where he spent most of his career. There, the public generally is more supportive and recognizes it’s the fleeing suspects who are endangering the public, he said.

“Some would argue that’s too dangerous. I understand that concept. I would argue right now that a street in southern California is safer, and the kids are not driving this recklessly, because in the past, they have been stopped. The message has been sent.”

Even so, some police officers have expressed reluctance to work on the quad squad.

“I try to pull someone over, the kid takes off and hits a kid on a playground and it’s my fault? No thanks,” one officer said.

On Saturday, by early afternoon, police had seized four dirt bikes and quads without incident. The department used detectives in unmarked cars as spotters to direct the marked units over the radio.

Lt. Ray Hassett, who was overseeing the squad, said he wasn’t looking for any chases, rather hoping to intercept the ATVs while stopped or moving slowly.

“This is a little like fishing. You’ve got to be patient. You can’t hurry something like this,” said Hassett. ”It’s not an exact science. You really have to have mature officers with good judgment and you have to have good supervision.”

He said he had no desire to deal with a pack of 12. Too many things can go wrong, he said. He liked the odds better with six officers trying to stop one dirt bike, likening the ATV problem to the packs of kids on bikes that plagued the city a few summers ago.

Efforts to chase down the bikes proved chaotic. Since last year, he’s seen some headway made through bicycle enforcement, stopping kids for infractions like riding on sidewalks and the wrong way on a one-way street. Last week, a routine stop netted a handgun and police routinely have seized drugs.

After the Newhallville fatalality, police launched an ATV hotline for residents to call if they witness reckless behavior.

With every tip, an officer is sent to the location, but Lewis said there’s not much an officer can do. If the ATV is on private property and police haven’t witnessed it being driven illegally, there’s no grounds to seize it, Lewis said.

There also have been suggestions of an educational campaign to make the youths aware of the dangers they’re creating.

“I don’t believe its an education issue, because these kids that have been driving reckless — putting the quads up on the back wheels, going against traffic, going up on sidewalks — every one of them doing that understands that that is illegal...It’s an issue of contempt for the neighborhoods, contempt for community members, contempt for the city,” Lewis said.

Source: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/04/27/news/new_haven/a1_--_neatv.txt

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