Advocacy & Safety - Have you ever had success turning in license plates to cops?

After reading quite a few threads involving people either confronting bad drivers versus jotting down their license plates and giving them to cops...

I guess I'm a cynic, but I expect that cops merely fill out a report and file it when a cyclist complains about a bad driver.

Has anyone turned in license plates to cops and gotten satisfactory results? i.e. fines/charges/arrest being levied against the aggressive driver?

Has anyone turned in license plates to cops and gotten satisfactory results? i.e. fines/charges/arrest being levied against the aggressive driver?

I was satisfied with my one experience here, even w/o files levied:

One evening as I was cycling home, I was making a left turn from a five-lane city road (two lanes each way and a center turn lane) where speed limits were ~35mph. I got in the center lane and was cycling to the light. At that point, a pickup came tearing out from gas station and headed straight towards me... At the last minute, they veered to one side. What got me though is that the window was rolled down and I heard someone laughing (suggesting to me this wasn't accidental "didn't see the cyclist"). I paused and was able to get the license plate.

I was frustrated enough that I cycled over to the city police station. I indicated that I wanted to file a police report. After a brief wait, an officer came out to take my report. He said he would check this out and took my phone number.

A few hours later, I got a phone call. The officer had gone to the person's home who owned the truck. That person acknowledged that he had been driving, and that he had encountered a cyclist. However, his story was that he hadn't seen me - though he couldn't explain the laughing. The officer let me know that it would be tough to convict on any charges since it would be a "he said/she said" type case. I didn't pursue the matter any more than that.

While this didn't result in charges, I was satisfied with the outcome. I'm not necessarily trying to stick it to this motorist. However, officers in question were polite, did their follow-through and let me know the outcome. I would hope in any case that the driver had some "warning" that harassing cyclists is not a good thing and hopefully behavior improves.

After reading quite a few threads involving people either confronting bad drivers versus jotting down their license plates and giving them to cops...

I guess I'm a cynic, but I expect that cops merely fill out a report and file it when a cyclist complains about a bad driver.

Has anyone turned in license plates to cops and gotten satisfactory results? i.e. fines/charges/arrest being levied against the aggressive driver?

Very rarely, but once in a great while you will get an officer who is willing to write a ticket just on your say so. I've had one ticket issued this way out of 10 or so complaints and 2 issued out of 20 or complaints with video evidence.

Even though I have video of all my recent incidents with cars very often the police won't even look at the video. They just get my side of the story, contact the motorist, who usually makes up lies, like the bikes swerved, I gave him plenty of room, or he cursed at me, and the officer then usually says it's he said she said, so that's the end of it.

I naively thought once I had visual proof of what was happening to me out on the road, the police would back me up. That is usually not the case. Most recently I've been told that despite the illegal pass, they, the police wouldn't do anything because I yelled "hey" as the driver went by, and they thought that somehow affected the drivers actions.

Just as a side note I've called the police about 3 non cycling related incidents and all 3 times the officer(s) said they were willing to write a citation on my word alone. But put a bike into the equation and the success ratio goes from 100 percent to about 10 percent.

Good Luck
Bikesafer (http://www.bikesafer.blogspot.com)
Jeff

The problem is multi layred.
1. Self defence. When a driver buzzes you they are using their car as a weapon and with dealy force. However Once the car is passed and they are no longer a threat you can engage you can really only engage at that point in time no later. So they get away with assult with a deadly weapon and attempted murder.

2. Damage. with no physical damge there is essentailly no harm no foul.

3. Evidence: these are 99% he said she said.

There is a REALLY good reson for police not to ticket based on a persons recollection. If you can go to the police and say the car with this plate threatend me i want you to tiket them what prevent you forom saying that the person at the mall assaulted you for making eye contact too long? Or chageing a parent with child abuse because you haerd a stressed out mom say "kids stop touching that or i am going to kill you"

Does it suck Yes.

In my inicident yesterday. I did not assult nor threated the driver or passenger. I simply asked "you got something to say to me?"

at that point in time the ball is back in their court they can either choose to run or come at me.

Also i should note that i am an amature fighter i fight once a week. for fun. So that skews my poiint of view. And your as well if you dont.

A number of UK and US cyclists use helmet cameras as an evidence gathering tool.

They've helped when the motorist inevitably tries to blame the cyclist for doing something stupid even if the opposite is true, .e.g., bicyclist initially blamed by driver (right hand drive) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chfYMHIfBzk) motorcyclist initially blamed by driver (left hand drive) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZtetIzIW4)

There are many reasonable options available - the ATC2k (ATC2000) is a popular model. The downside is the 640x480x30fps upper resolution limit on most helmet cameras, i.e., license plates at 30metres may be a problem.

Here's some more about helmet camera's in the UK and the related youtube channels - http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=394724

google search for "helmet camera" OR "bullet camera" OR "lipstick camera" OR "helmet cam" OR "lipstick cam" OR "bullet cam" (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22helmet+camera%22+OR+%22bullet+camera%22+OR+%22lipstick+camera%22+OR+%22helmet+cam%22+OR+%22lips tick+cam%22+OR+%22bullet+cam%22)

I guess I'm a cynic, but I expect that cops merely fill out a report and file it when a cyclist complains about a bad driver.

My feeling is that not even this is done most of the time. Most of the time the publics complanints are completely ignored.



Has anyone turned in license plates to cops and gotten satisfactory results? i.e. fines/charges/arrest being levied against the aggressive driver?

I almost never have trouble on the bike, but I walk my kids to school alot. And have seen and turned in several habitual school zone violations- speeding, running a stop sign at the school cross walk, ignoring a crossing guard, ignoring the crossing guard and actually lightly bumping my 7 year old daughter.

One guy 777 HEG KY. plate silver Porsche w/ rust spots, speeds down the road we walk to school every morning, runs the light at the bottom of the hill by the crossing guard, and sneeks in front of and behind the crossing guard as the kids are crossing. I have called the police, both the local # and 911 many times, emailed, talked to the chief , his kid goes to school with my kids, and the mayor.

A number of UK and US cyclists use helmet cameras as an evidence gathering tool.

They've helped when the motorist inevitably tries to blame the cyclist for doing something stupid even if the opposite is true, .e.g., bicyclist initially blamed by driver (right hand drive) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chfYMHIfBzk) motorcyclist initially blamed by driver (left hand drive) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZtetIzIW4)

There are many reasonable options available - the ATC2k (ATC2000) is a popular model. The downside is the 640x480x30fps upper resolution limit on most helmet cameras, i.e., license plates at 30metres may be a problem.

Here's some more about helmet camera's in the UK and the related youtube channels - http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=394724

google search for "helmet camera" OR "bullet camera" OR "lipstick camera" OR "helmet cam" OR "lipstick cam" OR "bullet cam" (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22helmet+camera%22+OR+%22bullet+camera%22+OR+%22lipstick+camera%22+OR+%22helmet+cam%22+OR+%22lips tick+cam%22+OR+%22bullet+cam%22)


I have the ATC2K, and I record every ride. With medium resolution and a 2 gig SD card I can record 1 hour and 48 minutes.

The video quality is not clear enough to record a license plate number, but I recite the plate number aloud if there's a problem, and the camera records the audio, although the audio is lousy, too.

For $100 it's okay, but I'm thinking about getting something better.


DPN

I have called police with license numbers about unsafe drivers (not bicycle related)... like one guy driving at high speed into oncoming traffic and swerving crazily. The cops simply told me that without a photo of the driver's face and also showing him/her doing the activity, that there was nothing they could do.

Like a number of posters have said, it's very hard to get a ticket written unless the officer was there and saw it happen, and police tend to relegate incidents where no property damage or personal injury/death occurred to the bottom of their "to-do" list. This is usually because they spend a good bit of time dealing with incidents where property damage and/or personal injury or death did occur.

I've gotten good results by calling the company that owns a commercial vehicle and calmly and politely describing the bad behavior of their drivers. After one such phone call, I saw the same vehicle in town repeatedly (it delivers to a store next to my apartment), but I never saw the driver who buzzed me, and vehicles from that company have always been very careful around me.

If your state has a road rage hotline, this can be a good way to go. The driver won't get a ticket, but his name goes into a statewide database of aggressive drivers that the cops can check if the driver gets pulled over or has an accident. Here in Colorado if a driver generates enough calls to the road rage hotline then the police will actually pay him a visit or start following him around.

Whether you call the police, a business owner, or a road rage hotline, it helps to have the most complete description of the vehicle and operator possible. People mix up license plate numbers all the time, so a license number and vehicle description that match will be much more credible than just a license number. Most businesses number their vehicles, so if you can get that number the owner of the vehicle can track down the vehicle much faster.

...Most recently I've been told that despite the illegal pass, they, the police wouldn't do anything because I yelled "hey" as the driver went by, and they thought that somehow affected the drivers actions. ...

That's insane, although they're right, it often DOES affect driver's actions, but only after the close pass. However, it's still the driver's own actions, and you aren't pulling the strings on a marionette.

One of my more recent incidents (and one of which I am very proud): A driver does a close pass right before a stop sign - he ends up almost perpindicular to the road, as there clearly wasn't room for the pass.

I gave a very loud "HEY!!" as I normally do in those situations. (Avoid dropping any f-bombs - for some reason, that is seen as inciting). They guy then opens his door and starts to get out saying, "What the f*** am I supposed to do?"

My response, as I'm rolling away after stopping at the stop sign: "Slow down until you are able to pass safely. It's that simple."

I'm really happy when I'm able to give a short, succinct, and reasonable response to a crazy driver. Hopefully his wife in the passenger seat will be able to talk some sense into the man.


Stay strong Jeff and keep up the fight!