I thougth I'd revive this old thread from the summer and give you an update:
I'm a writer, so I figured, I'd write letters to everyone possible to try to get something done about the treatment I'd received from the police...
So I wrote EBBC and met with Robert Raeburn, their head honcho.
I got some wonderful tips about how to approach this and decided that getting the 80 year old woman to pay $50.00 for my derailleur (wholesale) was not worth my time but that getting the mayor of San Leandro to notice the fact that her police didn't know how to cite the correct CVC codes for bike v car was.
So I wrote to her. And the counselmembers, the city planner, the chief of police and the traffic sgt.
I got a response. I was able to tell the police deptartment exactly how I felt about the whole thing--that the officer helping me was not actually doing anything to make the road safer for bikes. He told me that all of his officers had had extensive training in how to handle "these types of things." I told him that since bikes make up 10% of the traffic on the road in the East Bay (stat from EBBC, though it still seems large), that at least 10% of ALL traffic officers' training needed to focus on bikes.
He agreed. (he agreed!) And I got that agreement in writing. The San Leandro police department is going to check into getting their officers trained in bicycle traffic through East Bay Bike Coalition.
Now, this is something that I have to follow up on with another letter to the dept. and the mayor, but for the time being, I am STOKED!
I just thought I'd share.

admiral finch. Making the Roads a Safer Place for Bikes, One Letter at a Time.

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