Police Department Beefs Up Arrive Alive Program

Soon, teens who receive citations from South Pasadena police officers for violating the rules of the road while on foot, bike, scooter or skateboard will have to attend mandatory pedestrian safety classes under the revised Arrive Alive program. The program was designed to promote road and pedestrian safety among teens. 

While in past years, the police department has not enforced citations, the City Council voted last week to enact tougher enforcement rules. Teens who fail to attend Arrive Alive classes after receiving administrative citations from the police department could find themselves standing in front of a juvenile court judge.

South Pasadena Police Chief Joseph Payne encouraged the city to beef up the Arrive Alive program, and said it failed to live up to its original mission if citations were not enforced.

The police department first instituted the program four years ago after a string of accidents involving teen pedestrians on Fair Oaks Avenue near South Pasadena Middle School.

The program was a success at first, Payne said, with students who received citations attending safety classes in high numbers and seeming to be genuinely affected by the message of the classes.

However, attendance dwindled over time as students began to realize that there were no real consequences for failing to attend the classes.

"About a year and a half ago, attendance started to wane," Payne said. "There'd be some months where you'd have a class on a Saturday and only six kids would show up."

The poor attendance also had an impact on officers, who felt there was no point in handing out the easily dismissed administrative citations, Payne said.

"The officers felt there was a lack of accountability," he said. "They didn't want to issue the citation if there weren't going to be any consequences."

Payne said he spoke to juvenile court judges, who supported the program's parameters, and said they would be willing to enforce the traffic regulations on teens who were sent before them for skipping the class.

In addition to facing the inconvenience of spending a day in court, violators could also face a fine or community service, Payne said.

"The judges are on board with the program," Payne said. "Judges also asked if they could order offenders from other communities to attend the class."

According to Payne, the Arrive Alive classes are conducted by on-duty police officers, making the cost to the city minimal.

At last week's council meeting, Council Member Phillip Putnam asked if the new program would create an unnecessary burden on police officers, since officers who issued citations would have to appear in court alongside violators who skipped the Arrive Alive classes.

Payne said the department's police officers were on board with the program's increased enforcement.

"The officers said they would be willing to do something that would result in increased compliance," he said.

Council Member Mike Ten, who first suggested the implementation of the program in 2006, said the changes to the Arrive Alive program will finally "give it some teeth."

"About the third year into the program, we recognized that there was some problems with follow up," he said.

Ten said the Arrive Alive program is modeled after the bicycle citations students used to receive when he attended South Pasadena schools as a youth.

Now, a parent of three students in the school district, Ten said he always tries to be proactive on safety issues.

"We want to be doing things ahead of time, not reacting after the fact with candlelight vigils," he said. "Personally, I'm sick and tired of having laws named after kids that got killed."

The classes, which are held at the City Council Chambers, consist of basic traffic lessons, as well as videos featuring stark depictions of what can happen when pedestrians ignore the rules of the road.

"We only show what happens to the car in an accident, but the kids can gather what could happen to a person by seeing something like that," Ten said.

Payne said he was confident that the classes had an impact on young people, and even attended one with his own son a few years ago. He said his son still keeps the citation he received from the class on the wall in his room.

South Pasadena Middle School Principal David Kubela spoke in favor of the changes to the Arrive Alive during the council meeting. He said he encourages students to walk to school for environmental and health benefits, but he also wants them to recognize the rules of the road.

"We want kids to ride bikes, we want kids to skateboard," he said. "But, we also want them to do so safely."