The Ministry of Truth declares: Austin Police Department is NOT cracking down on cyclists, also, two plus two equals five.

You may have already read about this bullshit on either the BicycleAustin forums or the Austin Bike Blog, but I wanted to re-post and comment on it here to try and hit a wider audience. Once again the Austin Police Department seems to believe that we live in some alternate dystopian post-1984 reality where we'll all blindly accept the words of Big Brother when he tells us that we've always been at war with Eurasia, and that the police crackdown on cyclists that the APD has been waging over the last several months did not in fact happen.

Thankfully Tom Wald was there to capture this obvious fallacy and expose it to public scrutiny. Check out what he has to say in his letter, and their response by clicking read more (my followup comments are rather rant-y):

My letter of 1/14/09:

APD has advertised via local media and implemented a campaign against bicycle traffic violations. What I find disconcerting is that this is being implemented as a campaign against bicycle traffic violators instead of traffic violators in general.

My common experience in Austin is that motorists, including APD cruisers, habitually violate traffic laws to the detriment of others' safety. APD cruisers routinely violate their own policy with regard to when they can and cannot exceed posted speed limits. The violence caused by traffic violations of Austin motorists is one of the biggest issues still facing Austin: about 60 people each year die and tens of thousands are injured because of improper and/or unsafe motorist driving behavior. Even in cases where pedestrians are hit while jaywalking, we still find that the motorists were nevertheless exceeding the posted speed limits. "Speed kills" is mantra of numerous public safety departments around our country.

This is not about me getting a citation while riding my bike. I do ride my bike as a primary mode of transportation. However, I follow the traffic laws better than most Austinites.

The impetus for my e-mail is that two of my friends were ticketed for going through a red light while riding their bicycles. These friends of mine are conscientious riders and were not likely taking any considerable risk for themselves nor others. My hope is that APD would focus on violations where there is a real and present safety risk to others rather than singling out bicyclists and expecting bicyclists to follow the letter of the law while motorists are free to speed and otherwise put others in real danger.

(I could say similar things about APD's crackdown on pedestrian violators last summer.)

Tom Wald

Here's an officer's response from later that day:

Citizen Assistance Form
CAF # ... – Email Response
January 14, 2009

Citizen: Tom Wald
...

Dear Mr. Wald,

Thank you for your email to City Council expressing your concerns regarding the enforcement of bicycle and motor traffic violations. On behalf of City Council and the Chief of Police, please allow me to respond.

I would like to take this opportunity to address your initial concern of our department advertising a campaign against bicycle traffic violations. I have been in contact with our Public Information Manager and she has informed me that no such campaign has been implemented in the media recently. For any questions regarding our current projects, please feel free to call their office at 974-5017.

I must stress the Austin Police Department and its officers are dedicated to keeping its citizens safe. Department cruisers should not be violating any traffic laws. If you witness such an offense, please contact the Police Monitor’s Office immediately at 974-9090. However, I must explain that officers may be responding to emergencies including situations in which a fatality or injury has just occurred or may occur. For these specific calls, officers are authorized to drive at speeds greater than the posted limit and proceed through traffic signals after ensuring an intersection is clear.

I must further explicate that our department is dedicated to enforcing all traffic violations to include bicyclists’ and motorists. We can ensure that our department in no way is emphasizing focus on any particular group. We perform regular speed enforcement through our Strategic Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) as well as addressing complaints of traffic violations through increased patrol efforts (also called Directed Patrols). If you are aware of an intersection that is in need of immediate police enforcement, please do not hesitate in contacting me. I will refer you to the local District Representative officer for enforcement and follow-up.

Again, thank you for bringing your concern to our attention. Should you have any further questions, please contact me directly at 974-4711, or by email at Leander.Davila@ci.austin.tx.us.

Sincerely,

Lee Davila, Constituent Liaison
Austin Police Department

cc: City Manager’s Office, Marc A. Ott
Chief of Police, Art Acevedo

Basically, this letter goes against everything that's been reported in the "real" news, on the blogs, and in the forums for the past several months.

This begs the question; who's lying? Is it:

A) Officer Lee Davila, who said "no such campaign has been implemented in the media" in the above letter.

AND

B) Officer Martin Limon Jr., who said "I'm not sure where you received your information of the Police Department stepping up of enforcement of traffic violations by cyclists. I can tell you that our department in always working on different initiatives to make our city safe." when questioned by Adam about the alleged "crackdown".

OR:

C) Officer Michael Pollard who spoke with the media on multiple occasions, claiming a step-up in enforcement against bicycles.

AND

D) Officer Patrick South, who told the Austin Chronicle that "This is one of many initiatives conducted by the Downtown-area command to make the area safer" when questioned about the crackdown.

AND

E) The Several unnamed officers who are issuing tickets to cyclists, saying that they are "cracking down hard in the downtown area on riders who do not comply with traffic laws" or that "the cops have been assigned to crack down on all bike related offenses",

That's a question I'd really love to have answered by the media representatives of the APD. So many different stories, I love it! All I know is that I smell a lying cop, maybe more than one. Either way, it's definitely a shitty situation at APD HQ. I've been following the crackdown story from the get-go and will continue to do so until either we get some truth out of the cops or they get off our nuts, preferably both. If anyone else knows anything about the situation I don't, let me know and I'll be sure to get the word out.

P.S. if you believe the above letter from the police, then I'm also pleased to announce that your weekly chocolate ration will also be raised to 20 grams (from the previous 30). Lets all say it together now: "I LOVE BIG BROTHER"!