Confusion With Real Patrol Cars : Pizza ‘Police’ Find That the Heat Is On

Pizza restaurant owner Daniel Crotta says he has invested a lot of time and money since the novel idea for a police motif came to him “out of the blue” one day.

With any luck, Crotta says, his goal of expanding the New York Pizza Department in Mission Valley into a national chain of franchise outlets is well within reach.

But the 36-year-old San Diego entrepreneur, who has been in the pizza business for nearly 14 years, is running into a potential legal roadblock.

San Diego police officials say Crotta’s new white delivery cars--with their N.Y.P.D. markings and fake light bars across the top--look too much like real police squad cars.

Police officials have asked for legislation making it illegal to equip a car to look like a patrol vehicle. Both the City Council and its Rules Committee have unanimously endorsed the need for new legislation, and Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) has agreed to carry a city-sponsored bill to address police concerns.

David Takashima, an aide to Peace, said the assemblyman would most likely introduce a bill next week.

Because the light bars don’t operate and there are no real police insignias on the four-door sedans, Crotta’s cars are legal under current law. But police, saying there has been confusion and complaints in the months since the pizza cars hit the road, want more restrictions written into the law.

California law enforcement officials say there have been few problems with commercial enterprises, but police car look-alikes have been a recurring ruse used over the years by burglars, robbers and violent sex criminals.

While no one suspects Crotta of any criminal intent, California Highway Patrol spokesman Kent Milton said just the idea evokes harsh memories of Los Angeles’ famed “Red Light Bandit,” Caryl Chessman, who was executed in 1960 for luring women into his car, robbing and sexually abusing them.

Crotta says his idea is really “a fun concept” that even San Diego police officers found somewhat amusing at first.

Each of his pizza outlets will be decorated as “a precinct,” and the receipt handed to customers when their pizza is delivered is labeled “citation,” he said.

Shortly after the idea came to him in 1983, Crotta, who is an attorney, said he got a registered trademark for the name New York Pizza Department and began making plans for expansion. He said two new outlets should open this year in San Diego County and two others are planned in Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley.

He said he hopes to have two of the distinctive delivery cars assigned to each of the “precincts.”

Crotta said that when he took one of the cars to the Police Department’s traffic bureau last year, the officer who inspected it was so amused he called “some of his buddies” into the parking lot to take a look at it.

“There must have been 15 officers . . . out there laughing about it,” he said.

But since the cars took to the streets late last year, San Diego police spokesman Bill Robinson says “a dozen or so” citizens have called to complain or inquire about them.

“They appear to be patrol vehicles,” said Robinson, who concedes that the delivery car is a “clever, attention-getting device.”

Robinson said he fielded one call from an outraged citizen who mistakenly tried to flag down a pizza delivery car when he witnessed an auto burglary near Horton Plaza.

In another incident, city officials say a stranded motorist complained after a pizza delivery car drove by without stopping or slowing.

“The public was unaware . . . “ Robinson said, “It could be very confusing.”

Crotta said he is trying hard to “eliminate the confusion with the public” and address the police concerns.

He said he is doubling the height of the two-inch letters currently on the cars. The word “pizza” will be in red, instead of black. The light bars will be modified to ensure that absolutely no rays shine through the red and blue panels at night, he added.

Some of those changes were suggested by police, he said. When all the modifications are made, he will again drive one by the police traffic bureau for their inspection.

“The atmosphere right now is one of mutual cooperation,” he said.

Crotta said he has already changed the design of the cars and the lettering on them several times at the suggestion of police and the CHP.

Crotta added that he is still making changes and intends to hold more discussions with police “to eliminate the confusion.”

“We don’t want to look too much like a squad car because then we won’t be advertising effectively,” Crotta said.

Milton said CHP officials in Sacramento and San Diego warned Crotta last year that the delivery cars would invite “all kinds of strange situations” and numerous stops by curious police officers.

But Milton said CHP officials, at Crotta’s request, advised him on the law in California.

“He asked us about the legalities and that is what we tried to respond to,” Milton said.