More double standards at Tucson Police Department
I learned something interesting yesterday at a BAC enforcement meeting. When a motorists reports being in an accident in which the other vehicle fled the scene, if witnesses got the fleeing vehicle’s plate, TPD sends the owner of that vehicle a letter demanding to know what happened. (I’ve submitted a Public Records Act request for the letter to see exactly what it says.)
But what do you think happens in a motor vehicle/bike accident where the motor vehicle flees the scene? It’s the same violation whether you hit a bicyclist, a motorist, or a person riding an elephant, A.R.S. 28-661, so you would think the status of the victim would not control whether the fleeing driver gets the letter.
But it does. According to TPD, they don’t send letters to motorists who hit cyclists and then drive away. I personally find this to be a stunning and unjust double standard.
A double standard I intend to change.
Erik Ryberg
July 29th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I have been reading your posts off and on for a couple of years now. Living in Show Low, AZ traffic is minimal compared to Tucson, however, I often ride narrow 2 lane roads shared with big trucks hauling trailers. I wave thankfully to as many vehicles as give me wide berth, yet often am yelling at others who seem intent on seeing how close they can get to me. Many times I return home from my rides angry – a bit of a disappointment, but at least not dead, yet.
Your work is invaluable to all the rest of us. I don’t know of any others, except victims and their families, who wade into these tragedies. It almost seems that nobody else cares until they lose someone close.
July 30th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Wow, TPD never ceases to amaze me! Who is setting policy there? Does this person even know the law?
July 30th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Erik, did they even try to give an explanation for this double standard?
July 30th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Good work and activism by Tucson Bike Lawyer on the TPD front!
Does the same apparent double standard exist at Pima County Sheriff (the nearest-to TPD law enforcement reference point)? If it does, there is more work to be done. If it doesn’t, the case against TPD double standard strengthens…
Perhaps TPD will lamely defend by claiming cost-cutting measures…and point out that they didn’t merely send a letter to the motorist presumed to have killed Drake…
(there is a dirty little secret about state law and municipal ordinances: they are playgrounds for meeting budgets–budgets are more important than law and policy)
July 30th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
[...] Tucson police follow-up if a driver leaves the scene after hitting another car, but hit a cyclist? Not so much. Iowa considers banning bikes from farm-to-market roads. New York’s city council votes to let [...]
July 31st, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I saw a cop riding a motorcycle on the sidewalk going the wrong way the other day.
August 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Eric, this is a serious civil rights violation, 14th amendment but I don’t have my handy dandy pocket Constitution hand so don’t take my word on that. Anyway, excluding a class of citizen from equal protection under the law is a civil rights violation. File, or get ACLU to file on behalf of one of your clients, like the one that was hit with the baseball bat.
And I shouldn’t have to remind a lawyer about the US Constitution. I’m just a broken down computer geek and spoken word poet.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
If cycling is perceived as a threat
to the status quo car culture, then
someone attacked for that behavior
could be considered a victim of a
hate crime?