Briefing just the tickets for council
by C.A. Gilman

Ojai's Police Chief, Capt. Gary Pentis, presented an overview of traffic enforcement statistics from the Ventura County Sheriff's Department at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.
Pentis said, "In the year 2000 statistics for safety in our community, we were ranked with 87 other cities of our size in California. We were No. 8 of the 88 cities on speed-related accidents that cause injury in the cities of our size. We were ninth for pedestrians that are 65 or older that are injured on our roadways, and 11th for children that are under the age of 15 that are injured by a motor vehicle. As for pedestrians overall we ranked fifth out of 88 cities of population of our size in the state of California.
"That is not where we should be. So within the past two years, we have increased training and direction of our deputies who work the city cars, and support for motor officers."
City Council Member David Bury asked, "Why we have had such high statistics to rate No. 5?"
Pentis said, "Historically, traffic enforcement has not been a priority in this community. It brought about too many complaints. There is a direct correlation between traffic enforcement and accident rates."
From Jan. 1 through Sept. 19, 2002, the Sheriff's Office issued 872 traffic citations in the city of Ojai. 447 of those citations went to non-city residents; 425 to city residents.
From Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, 2002, 292 traffic accidents were reported; 111 injuries; 143 non-injuries; and 38 hit and run. 275 of these accidents took place during the day that coincided with work commutes and school pick-up and drop-off, while 35 took place after sundown.
Insurance agents have stated, Pentis said, that 40 percent of traffic accidents are not reported to the police. "When we started to ramp up our enforcement to the last couple of months, with the citation base people are slower and are more positively aware," Pentis said.
Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 19 of this year, the police issued 150 citations in the area of Nordhoff High School. During that same period they reported issuing 221 citations for stop sign violations - nearly a quarter of all citations issued in Ojai. Additionally, 114 citations were issued to children under 18 for not wearing a safety helmet when riding their bicycles. Pentis reported that 56 of these citations occurred in the first two months, and that once the cyclists understood the police were serious, they started to comply. Police Resource Officer Kim Larson gave away 230 bicycle helmets this year.
The primary reasons for the accidents were not yielding to other cars or pedestrians, making unsafe turns, speeding, and not stopping at stop signs.
The data reported that 45 percent, or 396, of those people cited for hazardous driving were between 26 and 59; and 35 percent, or 301 drivers, were under 25. Those over 60 (61 drivers) accounted for only 7 percent of those cited for hazardous driving. 114 youth not wearing bike helmets were 14 percent of the total figure. Pentis reported that 56 of these helmet citations occurred in the first two months, and that once the cyclists understood the police were serious, they started to comply. Police Resource Officer Kim Larson gave away 230 bicycle helmets this year.
Mayor Steve Olsen said, "Any time you do have enforcement, you will have a complaint. What is the process for those who have a complaint?"
Pentis said, "It depends on what the complaint is. Sometime the complaint is from misunderstanding and miscommunication and all it takes is a phone call. Then there is a situation when the person feels he was mistreated, and that complaint will go to a supervisor to investigate. Then the person is interviewed, the deputy is interviewed, the location is looked at, and any witnesses will be interviewed. There will then be a finding one way or the other ... Then I'll get back to the complaining party and tell them what the resolution was barring some personnel privacy issues. We don't divulge what the discipline is but I can inform them to a degree that they will be satisfied.
"When there are complaints that I don't think should be handled in house because of potential controversy, I'll send it to Ventura to the Internal Affairs Division which will do a similar investigation but with someone from the outside. Then they will contact the citizen with those results and resolutions.
"If they are not happy with that, then they can come to the City Council - you are my boss - and you can choose to call me in. I'm happy to say we get more compliments than complaints.
"We will take complaints over the phone or citizens can come in and fill out a complaint assistance form. We will take complaints from anyone at any time."
There will be a town meeting in October for youth, parents, and residents with the Youth Commission, the City, and the Sheriff's Department to discuss ways to ameliorate citations.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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