In the driver's seat

Strapped for officers, police are turning to volunteer programs

By Will Oremus / Daily News Staff Writer
Vexed by rush-hour drivers careening through her manicured, residential neighborhood, San Mateo resident Anna Kuhre for years has been calling for more police enforcement.

She thinks she may have finally found the help she needs in Officer David Coy.

Three mornings a week, Kuhre picks him up at the police station and drives with him in a cruiser to a street near her house. When motorists see Coy parked there in his blue uniform and sunglasses, they tend to slow down and mind their road manners.

Most ease by without ever taking a close enough look to get the joke behind his name. Officer D. Coy is a dummy - a tool the police department has offered to Kuhre to scare speeders into obeying the law.

San Mateo police say they have used the decoy car in the past, but these days they don't have enough officers to deploy it regularly. So in a department first, they've agreed to hand the keys to neighborhood volunteers who undergo training and pass a background check.

The department launched the program last week without publicity, tapping Kuhre as the first participant. If all goes well, Police Chief Susan Manheimer said it could expand to include a volunteer from each of five different areas of the city.

It's part of a broader initiative that Manheimer calls the Neighborhood Traffic Corps. The idea is to address the near-constant rumble of speeding complaints by enlisting the complainers in the battle. For instance, some volunteers will be asked to stand watch at intersections and count the rolling stops, helping the department's four traffic patrol officers target their efforts. Others will help with speed surveys.

Another plan under consideration - borrowed from neighboring Burlingame - would give residents radar guns and notepads to take down the license plates of speeders, so police can follow up with warning letters.

"Frankly, in this era of dwindling resources for local government, we've got to rely on our neighbors and the community," Manheimer said. "This extends our reach and our eyes and ears" without pulling officers away from more critical crime-fighting tasks.

Kuhre, for one, is enthusiastic.

"I've been working on Third Avenue traffic issues for three years, and this is the most empowered I've felt," she said. "We're going to get this off the ground, and we're going to make it a success."

On Friday, her husband dropped her off at the police station on Delaware Street, where an officer met her to sign out the keys to the car. It's an actual police cruiser with working lights, although volunteers are under strict instructions not to use them.

"If somebody flags them down, we tell them to let us know - don't take any action on your own," said Capt. Kevin Raffaelli. "They're limited to driving to and from the destination. They will not be patrolling in a police vehicle."

Kuhre rolled off the lot, turned left on Delaware and headed toward the Baywood neighborhood, driving at the speed limit. She parked the black-and-white cruiser on Edinburgh Street between Fordham Road and Virginia Avenue - a stretch that bears scars from an experiment with speed humps that ended in controversy a few years back.

Several otherwise serene streets in the area have become notorious as rush-hour shortcuts for parents hurrying to work after dropping their kids at school on Alameda de las Pulgas. The Edinburgh speed humps were removed not because they didn't slow traffic, but because of complaints that they merely diverted the speed demons onto even smaller roads.

After propping Officer Coy in the driver's seat, Kuhre adjusted the angle of his head, fitted him with the sunglasses - her own touch - and gently brushed back his artificial hair. She crossed the street, inspected her work for verisimilitude, then turned and walked home.

Neighbors on Edinburgh, a few of whom had seen the decoy on its last visit, mostly welcomed the inanimate interloper.

"It looks like Officer Schroeder," said plumber Michael Tyo, referring to a living, breathing San Mateo traffic officer. "It's positioned great. I wish we had something like this out where I live."

Phil Acker, who lives near the corner of Edinburgh Street and Virginia Avenue, recalled a time years ago when the intersection was regularly patrolled by motorcycle officers.

"Every 10 minutes, he'd take off after somebody," Acker said. "Nobody ever stops at this stop sign."

Under the unwatchful eyes of Officer Coy, five of the first six cars made full stops at Virginia on Friday. The sixth slowed, eyed the mannequin in the cruiser, and rolled on through.

The police department had hoped to keep the decoy program under the public's radar, at least at the start. But Kuhre is broadcasting it in hopes of attracting more volunteers.

Burlingame's citizen radar program recently stalled because the city can't find enough residents willing to participate.

"I'm sure they'll get volunteers," said Karen Herrel, a member of the Beresford-Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, which has its own speed concerns. "Traffic is a real issue, and I think there are definitely people who will step forward."

Herrel herself has already signed up for the traffic corps, though she said she's not sure yet what her role will be. The decoy program, she noted, is just a part of the overall push.

"There are lots of things that police officers do that probably are not the best use of their time," Herrel said. "To the extent you can use volunteers in any organization, you're freeing up the professionals to do things only the professionals can do."

Manheimer was dismayed to hear that the decoy trick would be revealed in the newspaper. But she said drivers who begin ignoring Officer D. Coy are running a risk. Police at some point may outfit it with a camera, or even switch out the dummy for a real officer with a radar gun.

"Once drivers see the decoy," Manheimer said, "enforcement will not be far behind."

Another plan under consideration - borrowed from neighboring Burlingame - would give residents radar guns and notepads to take down the license plates of speeders, so police can follow up with warning letters.