Commuting - Protect and serve or gererate revenue?

I've commuted Sepulveda Blvd for years, by motorcycle, car, and bicycle. It runs next to the 405 freeway and is heavely traveled as an alternative to a jammed freeway. The speed limit is 40mph. I've noticed over the years that the police leave it unpatroled for years, interval seems to be 3 years. The traffic gets used to traveling freeway speeds 60+, it seems that in that lenght of time commuters get used to traveling well over the speed limit. Enforcement appears suddenly with predicablely placed officers with radar guns. It's a good stradegy if the intent is to write lots of tickets but not great for keeping the road safe. I've sent emails to LAPD capt asking for enforcement but no replies.Since it's a bike route that means getting buzzed by cars traveling at high speed, no a good feeling.
Any ideas on getting the police to do their jobs?
I have a helmet cam, maybe I should start posting vids.

Some may disagree for various reasons, some of which may be valid, but there aren't enough police to go around. They're as strapped as any modern business or agency, being faced with budget constraints and the current need to 'go lean.' They do target areas of citizen concern but the emphasis is relegated to a priority list. Kind of like 'take a number and wait.' That's why you may notice a cyclical (no pun) routine. They do try.

As a trucker who has spent alot of time in your area, I must say that Cal drivers are especially lead-footed and digitally distracted. Just be careful.

I have found that police don't take it very well when you tell them they need to do a better job of patroling.
Case in point: Last summer a girl was hit by car on my street while riding her bike. The police showed up and started asking general questions, and my wife spoke up and told them that since we are in a school zone and people drive well over the posted speed limit, maybe you guys should set up radar every now and then. The officer's(SGT) reply was, pay more taxes and we will hire more officers to run radar on every street.
It just pisses me off because there are so many kids going up and down our street, and it is usually the parents of these kids speeding. Go figure.

This sounds kind of like that stretch of the old Rt.66 that runs through the Cajon Pass next to the I-15.
Speed limit is 45-55mph I believe.
But, people like to use this when the main freeway is clogged.
They'll fly through this area doing warp speed and nearly go flying off the drops at the sharp corners.
Alot of the times, it is families in big trucks pulling toy haulers.
Very concerned with getting to where they're going, but JoeSixpack daddy doesn't seem to give a rats ass about his loved ones.

I agree, I commute from Culver City to the Valley, when I take the car, sometimes I take Sepulveda.

It's always freeways speed there. I don't think the cops will take action unless there is a large public outcry, because quite a few times I saw police cruisers also speeding along there.

AS I see it, the trouble is that speeding tickets are dirt cheap in the US. After moving overseas, tickets are three to five times more expensive, so people speed much less-- and when they do, they are a few kph over the limit, rather than 15-20 mph over.

If the US wants to get serious, they need to raise fines and have more and more automatic camera/radar systems.

Trouble is, no one really wants to get too tough on speeding.

I agree on the point about tickets being too cheap. $75 around here, thats a drop in the bucket for people these days. Especially the upper class white collar city I work in, mommy and daddy pay for the tickets anyway. Just to put the whole revenue thing into perspective. Here in Illinois, the city gets about $11 per ticket written if the offender pays a $75 fine. I work in a ciy of 35,000 people, that has about 300 miles of roadway in our town. A large retail district, a larger industrial district, and many many many houses, most with kids. I dont know of any area in town where there are not kids playing in their yards.

On a GOOD day we have 5 officers and a Sgt. working the street. That leaves 6 people to cover that whole area. We usually handle 15-20 calls for service per dayshift, 25-35 on afternoons and 10-15 on midnights, (but nights are usually 2 man calls). That, unfortunately doesnt leave a whole lot of time to run radar on every street. We have a designated traffice unit of 3 people, but they're so busy with other things they rarely get out to run radar. Yesterday I went out to our #3 accident location with a hand held laser in plain clothes and stood by the road. I had 4 chase cars down the street to catch them when I called them out. We got 20 tickets in 1 1/2 hours. You shoulda heard the people complain. Funny how they want us to run radar until its them getting caught. I was very generous too, I gave 15 Mph (in a 30 zone) before I called them out.

Just last year we had a high schooler crash and die on a 25mph residential street. The neighbors lambasted us in the paper saying we never ran radar in the area. That was untrue, we have moving radar front and rear in our car, we dont have to be stopped to run radar. Everytime thru we have that thing on, we just never caught many in the area, cause it was a quiet road. Nobody wanted to mention that the youth was going nearly 70 mph when he lost control, it was easier to blame the cops, plus the press eats that stuff up.

Writing a letter or calling is totally justified, and it sounds warranted. If you feel like it's a threatening situation, let someone know about it. No reason to chastise the cops, cc them on the letter but send it to your local reps and maybe a local paper or two...

If the cops lack enforcement capabilities, perhaps there are other things they can do to slow down traffic. Change the light patterns, add intra-block lights, bottleneck zones... or perhaps something as drastic as removing a traffic lane and putting in a separated greenway with a MUP...
(oooh! the shock and awe of it!!!)

Isn't the LAPD famous for having the lowest ratio of police officers per 1,000 population? It shouldn't be a surprise to you that they cannot possibly respond to citizen complaints in a timely manner.

I have found that police don't take it very well when you tell them they need to do a better job of patroling.
Case in point: Last summer a girl was hit by car on my street while riding her bike. The police showed up and started asking general questions, and my wife spoke up and told them that since we are in a school zone and people drive well over the posted speed limit, maybe you guys should set up radar every now and then. The officer's(SGT) reply was, pay more taxes and we will hire more officers to run radar on every street.
It just pisses me off because there are so many kids going up and down our street, and it is usually the parents of these kids speeding. Go figure.

The officer did have a point about getting what you pay for. I do wonder where all that money and property seized in drug busts go, though. Funding issues aside, it seems like the "community policing" concept hasn't hit your community's police yet.

You have CHP in that area too, they cover the Blvd but concentrate on the 405. When the LAPD run a sting they cover the area heavy for an extended period devoting considerable manhours. It's seems like the ideal strategy for generating lots of tickets, I imagine they move from area to area. Seems like one officer showing up sporatically would be more effective in keeping speeds down.
The am commute is no problem because the traffic is so light at that hour but the afternoon ride can get scary, unless traffic is heavy.
Roscomare has less traffic but its so narrow.

To the OP: I am generally a constructive and nice guy, who would contribute in a positive way. (WARNING)

1) Whinning about LAPD will get you clubbered.
2) Getting drivers to slow down is as useless as counting clouds.
3) I drove on Sepulveda ONCE and yes ... it is NASCAR out there.
4) I would not ride in Sepulveda if my life depended on it.
5) The 405 seems to have slower traffic!

Sadly, as a police officer, I can tell you that we are spread extremely thin. It's also that our call volume has done nothing by elevate the last 10 years. It used to be the day shift never had any hot calls such as homicides or shootings, now it isn't uncommon for both. It used to be that the midnight shift in January and February used to be slow, now there is very little difference between the two shifts in call volume. I head many of the complaints about speeding. It's funny to set up enforcement because the neighbors complain about speeding, but when we set up enforcement, it is the neighbors who are violating the speed limit.

One village which hit the news recently put a bunch of residents in police style hi-viz jackets at eh roadside pointing a hairdryer at speeding motorists.

It worked.

In other places, residents have hired one of those protable radar units which shows the driver's speed on a flashing screen. They also tend to include a visible video camera in the process.

Other ideas I've read about include hiring seveal large skips and placing them sufficiently far out from the kerb on alternate sides and creating a semi-chicane set-up.

Or you could try riding two abreast in each direction with no shorts on and the letters S L O W felt-tipped across the buttocks. This could be called a Critical Ass ride

Critical Ass ride

YES!

I've used the helmetcam to capture rides on the motorcycle. Have various vids of drivers doing stupid things. One on Sepulveda weaving in and out of the bike lane, she had a map unfolded over the steering wheel. One guy on the freeway looked like a drunk driver, I assumed cell phone, when I got up to him he was picking his nose with such intensity it affected his driving. With all the distractions it's surprising there aren't more accidents.
Sure would be nice to send video clips to their insurance companys.

I agree on the point about tickets being too cheap. $75 around here, thats a drop in the bucket for people these days. Especially the upper class white collar city I work in, mommy and daddy pay for the tickets anyway. .

$75? My last US ticket was $130- and that is still cheap. Here in Norway there are closer to $300, I believe.

I retired from Law Enforcement in 2003. When I retired we had the same number of officers that we did in 1978. The population more than doubled as did the crime rate. Our department hired a firm to study each officers case load. They suggested we double our staffing.That did not happen. But our department was lucky. The County Sheriff staff shrunk to half as did the State Police.

Supertick, very good point. We have increased the size of the city buy not the size of the department. The call vloume goes up, but we have no more officers to handle them.

I can agree that police have less spare time on the job. I also agree with the idea for many departments, writting traffic tickets is often based on revenue.

In Honolulu, money for tickets goes to the State and the State refuses to share with the City, so the mayor had the cops back off of writing traffic tickets.

In comes the "Click it or Ticket" federal program in which the city can get a bunch of money from the feds for writting seat belt violation tickets. So now the cops are all over writing seat belt violation tickets while ignoring the guy running the red light.

Is it that the money and property confiscated in drug busts/raids gets funneled up to larger governmental agencies and so never directly benefits the local communities? Do you guys in law enforcement know how that works?

I so wish that the federal taxes I pay that are going to the federal defence budget could be diverted to the local law enforcement agencies where I live. At least here in Portland I would be reasonably sure it would be well spent. <sigh>

In Indiana local police departments get only $3 per ticket and that is to be used only for Police training and nothing else.

So where does the rest go?

To the state and prosecutor's office and the courts.

$75? My last US ticket was $130- and that is still cheap. Here in Norway there are closer to $300, I believe.

I thought that I read somewhere that fines in Norway are based upon your income? The more money you make, the higher your fine is...