Beginning a Constructive Dialogue with San Diego’s Law Enforcement
A few months ago, a League Certified Instructor with the League of American Bicyclists, Scott Dion, contacted Bike San Diego asking us for permission to use our name as a media organization as part of completing Form MC-500. Form MC-500 is a Media Request to Photograph, Record, or Broadcast. Dion wanted to record his court proceedings as he wanted to fight the improperly cited CVC 21202(a) ticket. Bike San Diego agreed to be listed as the media agency in the request as we felt it was important for cyclists to know how the law was being interpreted in court.
Unfortunately, that request was denied:
The court finds as follows: “According to it’s website, Bikesd.org is a community organization with activities including “…street level activism…” It is simply NOT a media organization.”
The denial was intriguing in part, because we have been unable to find accurate guidelines on what constitutes a media organization in the City of San Diego. Additionally, we were unaware that “street level activism” would result in us being not being a media organization. Given that all media organizations including newspapers, television stations and online publications have clear biases on issues they report and support – this denial struck us as being a bit odd. This website was begun, in part. to join forces with all the various cyclists that inhabit our region especially considering that news organizations in the region almost always reported on the negative aspects of bicycling and focused too much on bicycling fatalities or injuries.
We were further angered when the Judge presiding over Dion’s case found him guilty of violating CVC 21202(a).
At this point, we wrote to District Three Councilmember’s office as the citation had occurred in his district. Over two years ago, in 2009 when Andrew Woolley was similarly cited improperly and then had the charges reversed on appeal, Councilmember Gloria’s representiative responded back by stating the following, in part:
Councilmember Gloria is aware of this issue and has been in touch with members of the cycling community, the San Diego Police Department, and the City Attorney’s office about it. The last we heard was the City Attorney’s office was working with SDPD to ensure that officers do not wrongly ticket cyclists. This was at the end of June. Has there been any further incidents of citations since the end of June? If so, I would be happy to follow up.
We were unaware of any additional citations until Scott Dion contacted us. We then contacted Todd Gloria’s office again. His office has been very proactive in communicating our concerns to the City Attorney’s office and the San Diego Police Department. We will now begin a constructive dialogue. Councilmember Gloria has begun this dialogue by stating:
I have recently been corresponding with the City Attorney’s Office and Assistant Chief Boyd Long about this issue and how we can ensure that cyclists are not being improperly cited. In short, we want to be sure that this section of vehicle code is being properly enforced, everyone involved is on the same page, and that cyclist and police officers are keeping safety above all.
I believe Chief Long has also reached out to you to discuss this, and he has graciously offered to meet with us in person to go over this concern. If you are interested in meeting about this, please let us know and we will coordinate a time that works best.
We will be asking bicycle advocates and instructors well versed with the laws pertaining to cyclists to join this dialogue. And, we will be keeping your abreast of how this will progress.
In the meantime, please contact us if you are cited or have additional concerns you would like raised. It is certainly time that we ensure that all bicyclists are treated fairly, and with courtesy especially by those are called to uphold the law.