Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-08
ARRESTS OF AUToISTs.
Comparatively Few in This City, but
Percentage Of Convictions is High.

In commenting upon the fact that though
Washington is large city and the auto
mobiles upon her streets are as thick as
blackberries In the summer time, there are
comparatively few arrests, an intelligent
Pennsylvania avenue bike cop made this
statement:
with the thousands Of machines upon
our streets, we do not average now over
four or five arrests and convictions in a
month. There isn't another city of our
size in the country with an equal number
of machines In use where they have as
little trouble in handling this class of
street vehicle as We do There are two
reasons for this. First. the bicycle squad
are very energetic in the performance of
their duty in projecting both pedestrian
and autoist alike, and, second, the autoists
as great class respect the speed ordi-
nance.
"Our main difficulty is with the ehauf=
feurs of rich men and men Of prominence
in official circles, and with young fellows
who are out on a lark. especially at night;
In the latter instance they don't care. and
seem to enjoy giving the man In blue on the
wheel all the trouble they can, and in the
former the employer pays the fine i'm
posed upon an arrest with Indifference.
TT is the consensus Of opinion among
bike officers that upon a third arrest and
conviction the penalty OF Imprisonment
should be arbitrarily fixed by law, and
tionary power to impose fine in this In
stance. Imprisonment upon third con-
viction, even though the jail sentence was
very brief. would inspire some of these
reckless machine operators with a respect
instead of a disregard Of the law as now
exists. Some men have been fined dozen
times for the same offense Or II a jail SEN
tence is considered too severe. the max
imum penalty upon third offense should
be raised from $40 to 500.
1.-THE speedometers upon our wheels are
accurate and are tested officially every two
months. Yet when we go into court with
some cases the operators will swear their
speedometers did not register beyond the
speed limit. OF course,- some one is mig
taken. and, so far as the force is concerned,
we are more than willing to leave 1t to the
public to Judge as to which is the more
likely to be correct. Another reason why
we secure in Washington such a high per-
centage Of convictions when arrests are
made is that our men will not go into
court unless they know that they have a
good cose. We do not make arrests for
| the mere sake of doing so. as In some
cities We try to be square to our auto
| lists: but when they are guilty we think
| they ought to be punished, and our supe-
| riors and the public back US up in this
contention.
I'VE get most of our offenders for turn
| ing the corners at an unlawful rate OF
| speed. Our men become SO expert In fol-
| lowing autos. street cars and wagons, with
| their speedometers that their practiced eyes
can tell accurately the speed one is moving,
| though this don't go in court. We-win let
| it go with caution in most cases, but
we look out for the same fellow the net
| time 1t is almost impossible for US to
| get the fellows who operate these big cars
i when there are ladies In the rear seats.
The latter look out for the bike cops. warn
l the operators at our approach and they
slow UP at our coming so we can't get
a good case. The ladies' are very foxy at
| thfs-so much SO that they will beat IN