By Emily Alpert
Gilroy – Sirens whooped and police strobes swirled around Gilroy
High School Monday afternoon, where three police cars snagged
school zone speeders and other errant drivers, writing 27 citations
in less than two hours.
Gilroy – Sirens whooped and police strobes swirled around Gilroy High School Monday afternoon, where three police cars snagged school zone speeders and other errant drivers, writing 27 citations in less than two hours.
“Oh – I saw all the police cars, and wondered what was going on,” said one driver sheepishly, after officer Joseph Deras pulled her over. The woman, a day care provider, knew she was in a school zone: she lives right behind the high school. Her speed was 37 miles per hour, 12 miles over the school zone limit.
Within minutes, another driver, a 17-year-old GHS student, barreled down 10th Street at 40 miles per hour. Deras stopped her. Looking over her provisional license, he murmured, “She didn’t even know the speed limit … Probably, she’ll lose her license over this.”
The blitz of traffic stops near Gilroy schools is aimed at slowing school-zone drivers, said Deras. In the past week, during three enforcement details, his unit has issued more than 77 citations for speeding, unsafe U-turns, running stop signs and violating crosswalks. The officers volunteered to work overtime, coming in two and a half hours early to police Gilroy’s school zones. Police may not be able to patrol every school zone, every day, said Deras, but the high-impact speed stings send a message. At Gilroy High School, they already have.
“The first day we started at GHS, there were violations left and right,” said Deras. “As soon as we cleared one, we’d see another one. Today, it’s calmed down … already, people are noticing. The police are here.”
The officers had long planned to do traffic enforcement as their Community Policing Project, an optional initiative taken on by police units, said Deras. Police have been under pressure to increase traffic enforcement after the death of 5-year-old Julio Gonzalez Tuesday, Oct. 17, killed less than three days after Norman Watenpaugh, 75, and the third to die in four months, after Brayan Trejo, 5, died Tuesday, June 27. Deras said Gonzalez’ death isn’t the cause of the new patrols, which were already in the works, but it did push them to accelerate the project, and to focus on schools.
Writing tickets may not be glamorous, as police work goes, but it’s surprisingly dangerous: nationwide, in 2005, almost half of police officers killed were conducting traffic stops, according to FBI data released this month. Often, traffic stops uncover other crimes, like drug possession or arrest warrants. They’re a key tool in active policing, one that Gilroy has lacked this year.
Gilroy hasn’t had a dedicated traffic officer since 2005, when the former officer was promoted. Patrol officers still write around 10 tickets a day, said Sgt. Kurt Svardal, but on an under-staffed police department with officers stretched and working overtime, traffic stops have taken a backseat to calls for service.
“It’s not a matter of choosing not to (enforce traffic laws) – it’s an inability to,” said Brown. “Our officers are as frustrated as people in the community. They’ll be driving to a priority call and see a speeder on the way, but they can’t divert to take action.”
Adding to the staffing strain was an unexpected baby boom: out of 59 sworn GPD officers, 11 male police officers took time off this year to care for their newborn babies. Deras was one of them. Under the Family Medical Leave Act, employees are entitled to 12 weeks off for a birth in the family.
“Saying ‘no’ isn’t an answer,” said Brown. “It’s the law, and we don’t begrudge them that time. But it has caused some challenges back in the workplace.”
Fortunately, said Brown, the district’s staffing woes are almost over. Two officers were hired Sept. 19, filling two of four vacancies. The department is currently reviewing applicants’ backgrounds to fill the remaining vacancies, one of which may become a dedicated traffic officer.
In addition, City Council has approved five new officers, with one new officer hired every year for the next five years. The first new hire could be added even earlier than Jan. 1, said Brown, as human resources scans the five applications submitted for the two vacancies. That new hire could become a second traffic officer, said Brown, if staff and patrol sergeants decide it’s a top priority.
City council members will have their say at a joint November retreat with police, said Mayor Al Pinheiro. Snagging a new traffic safety officer is on the agenda.
“We’d requested that staff look at what it would take to get a traffic officer back on the streets,” said council member Craig Gartman. “I was anticipating seeing something in a couple of weeks.”
Upon hearing that a traffic officer could be working by Jan. 1, Gartman said, “I like it.”
Taming the streets can also be done on motorcycle, said Brown: reserve officer Benjamin Charnota is currently training as a motorcycle officer. Charnota leaped at the job last spring, but a space at motorcycle school wasn’t available until this fall. As of October, he’s being mentored by Morgan Hill motorcycle officers, and should be patrolling Gilroy’s streets part-time by Jan. 1.
Deras’ unit may also take on crosswalk stings, in which a plain-clothes officer or volunteer walks back and forth in a crosswalk. Police lay in wait nearby, to cite drivers who nose into the crosswalk out of turn.
“If people just obeyed the rules, we wouldn’t have to worry about this,” said Pinheiro, sighing. “It’s not as if outsiders are coming through and speeding – we need to slow down.”
Among the drivers stopped, many were parents. One, a 44-year-old woman, was spotted running a stop sign near Luigi Aprea Elementary School. A few blocks away, children spilled out of school and towards the crosswalks. She didn’t give her name, out of embarrassment.
“I know the value of driving safe, especially around schools,” she said sheepishly. “My son goes to the high school, and he’s a frequent bicyclist. He tells me he’s almost hit by cars.”
But that afternoon, she said, she was just in a hurry.
Emily Alpert covers public safety issues for The Dispatch. She can be reached at 847-7158, or at [email protected].
