Category: General Winner or Honorable Mention: Title of the Project: Pedestrian Sting (Safety) Program City: Redmond Population: 44,020 Name: Ed Billington Title: Commander, Redmond Police Department Phone: 425-556-2553

Description of Program

The Redmond Police Department developed a pedestrian sting program aimed at identifying motorist who fail to yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks. The goal of the program is to reduce violations by the motoring public, educate the public, and reduce the number of pedestrian vs. vehicle collisions. A "decoy" pedestrian (an officer in plain clothes) is used at a high complaint or violation crosswalks in the City of Redmond, Washington. Several uniformed enforcement officers are also at the crosswalk. Recognized accident investigation formula is used for "slide to stop" calculations adding ten miles per hour of speed and a two second reaction time to compute a distance for the speed of the particular roadway targeted for violator. Officers measure off a calculated stopping distance from either end of the targeted crosswalk and placed a traffic cone at that spot. If a car is within this perimeter, the decoy pedestrian does not enter the crosswalk. The "decoy" will enter the crosswalk when a vehicle is outside the perimeter (where they would have time to perceive and react to the pedestrian in the crosswalk). Those vehicles that fail to yield the right of way are stopped by uniformed officers and enforcement action taken.

When and Why Created In the last decade the rate of growth in the City of Redmond has had significant negative impacts on vehicular and pedestrian traffic within the city. Redmond has enjoyed a vibrant economy that is technology based but the growth of the region and the high demand on individuals' time has caused drivers to have less patience. In December of 1997 three City of Redmond employees were struck by a vehicle while in a marked crosswalk in front of City Hall. Two of the employees died from their injuries. Unfortunately, this type of accident is symptomatic of a greater pedestrian safety problem in the area. The Department was looking for an efficient way to address the communities concerns that drivers were failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. It is notoriously inefficient to just put an officer at a crosswalk and then wait for someone to cross, and then wait for a driver to fail to yield. In February of 1998 the concept of this program was launched by the Redmond Police Department's Traffic Lieutenant, John Miner.

He worked cooperatively with, the Transportation/Engineering, Traffic Safety Specialist, and the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission. The plan also had strong support of the Police Department's Command Staff, the Redmond Prosecuting Aftorney, and the local District Court prior to implementation. Measurements of Effectiveness

The overall intent of this targeted enforcement program is to educate drivers and pedestrians on their rights and responsibilities in using the roadway together. It has had the added benefit of educating police officers to a serious problem that many before had thought was quite minor in nature. The effectiveness of this operation is anticipated to be most effectively measure after a significant number of these operations have taken place. Enforcement officers have had drivers tell them they are aware of this enforcement operation. There have been many positive comments from pedestrians and drivers. There have been fewer complaints at a couple of the crosswalks most frequently worked. Since the introduction of this program the Department has received requests to work other locations as motorists and pedestrians becoming aware of this program. The Police Department has conducted a total of 19 "Pedestrian Sting Operations", resulting in 245 citations and 211 warnings.

The data shows that between 40% and 65% of the time when a pedestrian crosses at a crosswalk, a driver will fail to yield to them. While this is dramatic, it must be understood that this data will become more meaningful as more of these operations are conducted. For instance, if we had 100 of these completed and this statistic continued, it would be more meaningful than the 19 operations we do have in the history of this effort.

Financing of Programs

The expense of conducting a pedestrian sting operation has been nominal. The largest single expense is salary of officers and supervisor at the scene. Most overtime expenses have been absorbed by the departments overtime budget. While this program lends itself to virtually any jurisdiction and requires no special equipment, it is labor intensive to conduct efficiently. The Police Department has had great support from the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission. Redmond has applied for and received grant monies to help pay for some of the overtime costs incurred. These operations take about seven officers to conduct, and approximately half of the officers are on overtime.

City Agency and/or Community Involvement

The City of Redmond's Transportation/Engineering Division has worked cooperatively with the Police Department in addressing signing and marking issues. Signs, elevated crosswalks (speed humps), light crosswalks, safety islands, and creative roadway marking are examples of some of the strategies used in an attempt to make crosswalks more visible and safer to use.

Redmond's Transportation/Engineering Department has a "Traffic Safety Education Specialist", Susan Syszeski. She has developed a number of brochures and makes many presentations on pedestrian safety. There is a close working relationship with the Traffic Lieutenant. There has been a collaboration on an award winning safety video, "Pedestrian Safety: A Two Way Street". The Washington State Traffic Safety Commission was so impressed with the program that they contracted with a media production company to create a roll-call video for law enforcement officers. This has been distributed to all law enforcement agencies in the State of Washington.

An instructional roll-call video was made with funds from the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission for law enforcement officers and then distributed to all police agencies in the State of Washington. In addition, Lieutenant Miner and members of the Traffic Division have made many local presentations to law enforcement agencies, workshops, and citizen advocate groups addressing pedestrian related issues.

Presentations have been made in Oregon and Florida. The State of Oregon is conducting these pedestrian stings on a widespread basis now because of being introduced to this program. Hillsboro, Oregon, Police Department is the lead agency in Oregon. Finally, information packages have been distributed to over 100 different requesters throughout the United States and two countries.

Major Lessons

This program WORKS! It is an effective tool for law enforcement. Combined with engineering input and education in the form of brochures or other printed material, informing motorists on their responsibilities when encountering pedestrians. This program is very cost effective. Many police officers were not as aware of the pedestrian laws and the program has helped to create an awareness of the issue. The community has strongly supported this initiative and it has received lots of media coverage.