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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Matter of Opinion

Dead man walking (aka a pedestrian)

A story now posted on The Spokesman-review Web site reports that Spokane police issued 52 citations over a 1 1/2-hour period -- more than a citation every two minutes -- while conducting an emphasis patrol in the Gonzaga University neighborhood. Thirty-five of the tickets were for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
If you aren't familiar with the term "emphasis patrol," it's police-speak for sting operation. A decoy acts like a pedestrian while other officers wait to nab drivers who whiz past.
Before I go further, a word of disclosure. I have been ticketed in such an operation. I also have been rear-ended big time when stopping to let a pedestrian cross Grand. And, last, I frequently walk through areas of downtown where drivers, including occasional police officers, routinely ignore pedestrians who are trying to exercise their right-of-way.
So here are my arguments against emphasis patrols:
1. They are conducted only on a spot basis. Violating the law will get you a ticket for an hour and a half, but the rest of the year you're in the clear.
2. Why waste the time of a decoy, who isn't there because he really wants to cross the street, when you could go to areas where the problem occurs regularly and cite real drivers who violated real pedestrians' rights? Since Tuesday's sting was prompted by complaints in the area, why not just go there and enforce the law? Or if that didn't work, try the intersections around Second and Third and Madison and Jefferson in southwest downtown any morning between 7 and 8 or any evening between 5 and 6.
If the pedestrian right-of-way law were enforced consistently rather than just occasionally, I'll bet motorists would get the idea -- and without rear-end collisions.



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