The South Pasadena Police Department has requested that more than 150 traffic citations issued Wednesday to drivers during a school bus sting be dismissed.
Designed to nab motorists who violated a vehicle code that requires drivers to stop for school buses with flashing red lights, the sting involved two police cadets walking on and off a school bus parked on Huntington Drive near Milan Avenue.
However, the vehicle code says drivers may not pass a school bus with its red lights flashing when it is “stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading any schoolchildren.”
After meeting with the city attorney, the Police Department decided this morning to ask the courts to dismiss the citations, which were reported earlier to be $500 each.
Citations start at $150, but with added penalties they can rise as high as $1,000. “We didn’t meet the requirements for this code,” Capt. Richard Kowaltschuk said.
“Although we will be asking for the citations to be dismissed, we have to remember the reason we did it on this street was we had in fact gotten a complaint from someone who lives on that street who has a child with a disability who uses a school bus.”
Cities are desperate for funding, so I fully expect to see more of these "sting" operations. Frankly, I don't care much for them because it think the local authorities tend to get over-ambitious and a lot of folks end up paying for it. I'm not disappointed that this one ended up a bust for the PD.
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