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Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 9:38 am
by Sacrelicio
I've tried to get more traffic enforcement in my neighborhood and my councilperson (Elizabeth Glidden) and the crime specialist (Sue Roethele) informed me that the MPD doesn't do traffic enforcement. Is this normal for a city our size? How can we lobby to get this changed? Minneapolis is essentially lawless as far as driving goes.

Re: Police traffic enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 9:45 am
by FISHMANPET
Traffic control is part of a different department. They do everything but moving violations, which presumably the police still do. There may be a confusion of terms, because if you talk to your councilperson about "traffic enforcement" specifically they're probably going to jump right to thinking about the traffic control department. Unles you asked about speeding or other moving violations specifically and was told MPD doesn't care about those, in which case I have no idea.
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/regserv ... /index.htm

Re: Police traffic enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 10:03 am
by Sacrelicio
Traffic control is part of a different department. They do everything but moving violations, which presumably the police still do. There may be a confusion of terms, because if you talk to your councilperson about "traffic enforcement" specifically they're probably going to jump right to thinking about the traffic control department. Unles you asked about speeding or other moving violations specifically and was told MPD doesn't care about those, in which case I have no idea.
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/regserv ... /index.htm
I've specifically complained about speed and red light running.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 10:31 am
by RailBaronYarr
MPD's first reaction to a tweet I tagged them in re: enforcing moving violations on Hennepin bus/bike lanes downtown was to refer me to Traffic Control. When I expressed confusion as to whether MPD squads pull people over, they responded with a yes. I get the impression (and I don't mean this in a super-whiny-car-hatey sort of way) that MPD squads will enforce traffic violations only when they're blatant or perceived to be very dangerous. We could probably debate how their time is best spent in terms of social outcomes, but that's just my perception. I also get the feeling, mostly based on anecdotes and personal experience, that not every officer is 100% knowledgeable of rules of the roads as they apply to pedestrians and cyclists.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 10:32 am
by mplser
Let me know what you find out. I'd love to encourage more enforcement in Elliot Park. On the eastern edge of downtown, people tend to speed up to freeway speeds, and go 50+ mph for 2 or 3 blocks before they get to their on ramps. I'd definitely consider this to be blatant and/or dangerous.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 10:39 am
by Sacrelicio
MPD's first reaction to a tweet I tagged them in re: enforcing moving violations on Hennepin bus/bike lanes downtown was to refer me to Traffic Control. When I expressed confusion as to whether MPD squads pull people over, they responded with a yes. I get the impression (and I don't mean this in a super-whiny-car-hatey sort of way) that MPD squads will enforce traffic violations only when they're blatant or perceived to be very dangerous. We could probably debate how their time is best spent in terms of social outcomes, but that's just my perception. I also get the feeling, mostly based on anecdotes and personal experience, that not every officer is 100% knowledgeable of rules of the roads as they apply to pedestrians and cyclists.
This was the gist of what I got from Sue Roethele. They don't really do "passive" enforcement. I'll try to find her exact words in my email. I understand that they have a lot of work to do, but it's not right that people can drive the way they do in this city.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 10:45 am
by PhilmerPhil
Back when I lived on LaSalle Ave just south of 94, people would speed pretty dangerously. I asked for some police enforcement and was told all that could be done was to put up a speed wagon for a week or so.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 10:48 am
by Sacrelicio
I was almost run over walking to the bus today as a work van rounded a corner. Fist is still sore from pounding his window and side panel.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 10:48 am
by Anondson
I have a hunch North Minneapolis sees a bit more traffic enforcement than other parts of the city, but that's my inner cynic.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 10:51 am
by Sacrelicio
I have a hunch North Minneapolis sees a bit more traffic enforcement than other parts of the city, but that's my inner cynic.
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/07/31/killebrew

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 11:02 am
by mattaudio
This topic should be a streets post. It's been immensely frustrating as a Minneapolis resident who sometimes gets around by notdriving.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 12:04 pm
by Anondson
The Lakes and Uptown of Minneapolis could use a few more officer Killebrews?

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 12:21 pm
by Sacrelicio
This topic should be a streets post. It's been immensely frustrating as a Minneapolis resident who sometimes gets around by notdriving.
Agreed! I emailed streets.mn via the "Contact Us" form. Hopefully we see something!

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 12:24 pm
by mattaudio
Maybe you want to write it!

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 12:27 pm
by Sacrelicio
Maybe you want to write it!
Image

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 12:51 pm
by trigonalmayhem
This is my number one problem with the city of Minneapolis right now. They could easily pay for a few officers' salaries just by hanging out on first ave ne during rush hour. The same goes for lake Street pretty much anywhere in town. And every downtown intersection. And the list goes on and on and on.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 1:36 pm
by amiller92
Maybe you want to write it!
Image
I don't know what that image means (I'm old and the internet scares me), but your email may eventually get distributed to the writers email list and one of them may or may not decide to write something about it. Or the board/editor people may make the same suggestion as Matt.

Meanwhile, you've already done some legwork on the topic that would be a great place to start for a post. I have no doubt we can get it posted.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 1:44 pm
by EOst
Back when I lived on LaSalle Ave just south of 94, people would speed pretty dangerously. I asked for some police enforcement and was told all that could be done was to put up a speed wagon for a week or so.
I was wondering about that myself (living probably where you lived, or across the street).

There've been at least three serious accidents at Lasalle & Groveland in the last few months. You'd think that alone would be enough to get some enforcement...

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 1:52 pm
by HiawathaGuy
This is my number one problem with the city of Minneapolis right now. They could easily pay for a few officers' salaries just by hanging out on first ave ne during rush hour. The same goes for lake Street pretty much anywhere in town. And every downtown intersection. And the list goes on and on and on.
I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that I don't think the City has many "idle" police officers to patrol the streets for traffic violators. The mayor's budget already includes a large pool of new police officers to handle the ones retiring and max out the squad - at a time when violent crime is at a 10-year high. It's not ideal, but frankly I can understand why MPD focuses attention on other, larger issues in the city.

I agree, trust me, I see things all the time that make me smh. But I'd prefer that MPD focus on community engagement and violent crime reduction first. Otherwise the trend of urbanizing our city will be for naught.

Re: Traffic Enforcement

Posted: November 17th, 2015, 1:59 pm
by Sacrelicio
This is my number one problem with the city of Minneapolis right now. They could easily pay for a few officers' salaries just by hanging out on first ave ne during rush hour. The same goes for lake Street pretty much anywhere in town. And every downtown intersection. And the list goes on and on and on.
I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that I don't think the City has many "idle" police officers to patrol the streets for traffic violators. The mayor's budget already includes a large pool of new police officers to handle the ones retiring and max out the squad - at a time when violent crime is at a 10-year high. It's not ideal, but frankly I can understand why MPD focuses attention on other, larger issues in the city.

I agree, trust me, I see things all the time that make me smh. But I'd prefer that MPD focus on community engagement and violent crime reduction first. Otherwise the trend of urbanizing our city will be for naught.
I understand that they prioritize other things over traffic enforcement, but I don't think this is something we should let slide. I don't want to get hit by a car any more than I want to be maimed or killed by criminals. I don't want my property damaged by flying cars (it's happened several times on 46th street) any more than I want to be robbed on the street.