Petrelis Files

SF Cycle Cops Ride on Crowded Sidewalk, Break Law: Video

This note has been sent to the head of the police department and several of his top staffers, including public information officers:



Dear Chief of Police Greg Suhr,

I wish to lodge a complaint with and formally request an investigation from the San Francisco police department regarding two on-duty police officers I witnessed breaking the law against bicycling riding on a narrow City sidewalk this weekend.

On Saturday, March 8, at approximately 5:10 pm, on the crowded sidewalk at Mission and 4th Streets, two uniformed officers were observed standing next to their bikes. This took place in front of the Starbucks in the Metreon Center. After concluding their discussion with each other, they got on the bikes and one rode off down Mission toward 3rd Street while the other headed in the direction of Howard Street.

Despite the activities of dozens of bustling pedestrians, including the elderly and at least one infirm person using a metal cane to steady himself, both policemen peddled at a robust speed amid people walking.

As you well know, it is against City law to ride bikes on the sidewalks and in November your department was embroiled in a controversy over charges of police brutality against a young black man riding a bike on a sidewalk in the Valencia Gardens housing complex, who was subject to arrest and held in custody for violating SF Transportation Code Sec. 7.2.12 which forbids sidewalk bicycle riding.

The menace from bikers of all sorts illegally peddling on City sidewalks not only places people walking and the riders at risk of harm and bodily injury, but also contributes to urban tensions on our streets and in public spaces that should be reserved only for use of folks walking or in wheelchairs.

To see with my own eyes members of the police department engaging in unlawful bike riding, and capturing it on video, prods me to call as much public attention to the behavior of your officers in this situation.

I request that you send my complaint and video evidence down your chain of command to the appropriate division and personnel ready to begin an investigation, as soon as possible.

There will be updates when I hear back from the police department.