Brent McDevitt: GF fails to rein in kids harassing on bikes

Mark,

In your May 30th edition of the Chronicle, we read about a senior citizen being harassed by reckless, careless, and disrespectful adolescents on bikes. I am starting to lose track, is this the third, fourth, or fifth edition of your paper, we as a community have read of these incidents?

The comments from Mayor Collins and Chief Smith over the last several months are weak. The Mayor says call the police, the Chief says not much we can do about this.

If Private Enterprise had this issue in front of them, we would have it addressed, settled, and closed in short order. Due to the fact, that the man in the corner office is doing very little at best, allow me to orchestrate an Action Plan for you both.

1. Has the Glens Falls Police Department, Officer Norton, or as importantly the Chief, or Mayor held a Symposium at the Glens Falls High School? The intent would be to speak with these students relative to first the danger of these reoccurring reckless riders, but second and more importantly the consequences that will be handed down should they be caught, arrested and prosecuted. Gather them up, lean on them and ask for their cooperation. This has not occurred, why not? Too hard to arrange gents, or just a lack of effort?

2. If I was the Mayor, for several weeks the Chief of Police and I would walk the beat together daily in each of the five wards in Glens Falls. We would be seen as a presence and a face of the community. Has this occurred? Why not? Get out, exhibit some old school policing and leadership. Talk to kids in each of the wards, ask them what they know, who are these kids? I would bet you a steak dinner in a few days, you would have some names. Loose lips sink ships and it is time for leadership to show a presence in the community.

3. Police officers out of their cruisers walking the beat. Speaking with kids, public engagement, etc. Has this occurred? Why not? A specific presence needs to be seen.

President Truman used to have a sign on his desk that said, “The Buck Stops Here.” This sign reflected his belief that ultimately responsibility begins and ends with the man in the corner office.

I would strongly encourage the Mayor, Chief and officers to get serious and tough regarding this ongoing group of punks who are terrorizing citizens, taxpayers and senior citizens in the City, before someone gets hurt. Once again if Government were being run like private enterprise and your paycheck was reflective on solving this mess, I would suggest it would have been solved months ago. The Action Plan is mapped out here, time for some specific action.

— Brent McDevitt, Queensbury­

Mayor & Police Chief respond; we’ve curbed incidents, let us know if you see more of them

Editor’s note: The Chronicle provided Brent McDevitt’s letter last week to Mayor Bill Collins and, through him, to Police Chief Jarred Smith inviting their response to be published simultaneously with the letter. Monday the mayor issued the following release:

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A Letter from Mayor Collins and Chief Smith to Update the Public Regarding Dangerous Operation of Bicycles in Traffic
As the Summer school holidays approach and the number of young people on bicycles is likely to increase, it is time to revisit the question of dangerous operation of bicycles in traffic.

Many of you will remember the statement released by the city in late April in which the public was encouraged to report any dangerous bicycling incidents and to share any information that they had.

Chief Smith and I have been in regular contact monitoring these incidents. I can report that we have both been encouraged by the public response.

Calls and information provided by the public combined with regular patrols have led GFPD officers to interrupt several incidents and resulted in two arrests in April — one adult and one juvenile.

Chief Smith reports that calls began in February (2 calls), ballooned in March and April (13 and 12 calls respectively), but have declined since then. There were six calls in May and there have been three so far in June.

As the number of calls and reports has declined, so has the number of contacts that officers on patrol have had with groups of dangerous riders.

While this is a positive sign, we cannot assume that the problem has been completely eliminated or that the potential for it to balloon again is at zero.

I join Chief Smith in repeating our appeal to the public to report dangerous bicycle riders. Timely and detailed reporting of dangerous riders has helped and will help police officers to identify them — and particularly any “ringleaders” — and get them out of traffic.

“If you see something, say something” and together we can improve the safety of our community.

— S. William Collins, Mayor

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