Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

Police ignored their duties

I have witnessed three occasions where city police ignored their enforcement duties of local and state noise pollution and vehicle code regulations. Even the state police told me that the city police should have enforced the state vehicle codes. I have emailed the mayor and the police chief about this but have received only excuses like they were called to more important situations. In addition, I filed a complaint with CALEPA, the state arm of the federal EPA, which oversees adoption of the Federal Noise Pollution Act of 1973. That was last November. They have not responded. I contacted an assemblyman. They contacted the police for clarification of their duties. He was told that they do enforce what I described. Then, I saw two police officers standing on the sidewalk, chatting, while they listened to a biker start his vehicle, which had no muffler. I drove by them and said the bike had no muffler. One of them responded, ''okay'' and did nothing. The motorcycle rode off, escaping local and state laws and disrupting the peace of the entire neighborhood. This motorcycle excessive noise problem occurs constantly and is affecting my health. What can I do about this? Moving to a different will not solve the problem.


Asked on 1/08/09, 12:59 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Police ignored their duties

You are not going to prevail in this dispute. The police don't have a duty to individual citizens. This has been decided over and over. The police have a duty to provide law enforcement in the ways and according to the priorities given them through their command structure, chief on down, and the chief gets his priorities from his employer - the city council, mayor, or whatever. Individual citizens have NO RIGHT to make demands upon the police that can be enforced by the citizen based upon the citizen's theory that the police are ignoring their duties. If you want police action of your issues, you need to start with the top of their priority-deciding system - the mayor, city manager and city council - and hope they agree with YOUR theory of police priorities. In short, talk to someone who can do something about it - but the cops report to the council, not you.

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Answered on 1/11/09, 1:07 am


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