Pedestrian sting angers drivers

Darleene Barrientos

On her way home to Los Angeles after visiting her parents in

Glendale, Lillian Anjargolian said she was driving toward the

Glendale (2) Freeway when she swerved to avoid a man who stepped off

the curb near Verdugo Boulevard and Park Place.

A Glendale Police officer immediately pulled over Anjargolian for

failing to yield to a pedestrian. The incident occurred during one of

the department’s four pedestrian sting operations held in the past

three months. Three pedestrians have been killed this year in

Glendale.

Anjargolian, 26, said she felt the ticket was unfair but has not

decided if she will fight it in court.

“You have someone stepping out into 35-mph traffic,” she said. “It

was a dark intersection. It was a trap.”

Anjargolian was one of many drivers stopped during the Aug. 22

sting. The Glendale Police Department ticketed 62 drivers for failing

to yield to a pedestrian.

The police department has fielded several calls since the sting

from drivers who were ticketed. Most of the callers alleged the

undercover officer failed to cross the street safely, Glendale Police

Lt. Don Meredith said.

A Montrose man who identified himself as a former police officer

wrote to the News-Press, saying he believed the decoy officer walked

into the path of his son’s car and was close enough to constitute an

immediate hazard. His 16-year-old son received a citation during the

sting.

“These actions put the decoy officer, motorists and citizens in

the community at risk. You can’t enforce the law by breaking it,”

Frank Frias wrote in a letter that also was sent to the City Council.

John Drayman, a board member with the Montrose Shopping Park

Assn., said he did not witness the sting operation but heard about it

from several merchants and friends.

“The only reason why I knew about it was because customers and

other merchants kept talking about it,” he said. “I suppose the

police department wants to raise awareness about pedestrians crossing

the street. They have certainly done that.”

The area where the operation was held was chosen because several

shops and restaurants there create a lot of pedestrian and car

traffic, Meredith said.

“Up in that area, everybody wants us to do enforcement, but no one

wants to be a target,” he said.

Meredith said he has fielded a handful of calls from drivers who

received citations during the sting, as well as a letter, but the

complaints are not unusual.

“We have an obligation to the citizens to try to do the best job

we can to protect them. We have found pedestrian operations to be

very effective,” he said. “I understand people are upset, but I’m the

one who has to tell people when someone’s not coming home.

“Pedestrian accidents are up across the state. I once had to tell

a woman her husband wasn’t coming home. The little boy grabbed my leg

and said, ‘My dad’s dead?’ ”

Tom Russell, who owns Andersen’s Pet Shop at 2218 Honolulu Ave.,

watched the sting operation from in front of his store for several

minutes before figuring out what was going on.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do, whether he would walk or

stand there looking weird. Pedestrians rarely cross the street

there,” Russell said of the decoy officer. “Sometimes he just walked

right across, sometimes he hesitated. He looked like he was trying to

trick people.”

The sting operation became an educational experience for several

drivers who did not realize they had to stop for a pedestrian

crossing at an unmarked crosswalk.

“Where two streets intersect, there is a crosswalk,” Glendale

Police Motor Sgt. Lewie Guay said. “It’s not like this is something

new. We’ve been doing this since 1997.”

The operation is conducted scientifically to ensure that the

department can issue the ticket without the driver arguing that he or

she didn’t have time to stop for the pedestrian, he said.

California Highway Patrol guidelines state a car driving at 30 mph

should be able to come to a complete stop within 109 feet. In

preparation for the operation, Guay placed orange traffic cones 170

feet away from the intersection on either side as a guideline to

identify where a car should be for a pedestrian -- or an undercover

officer -- to be able to safely step out into traffic and walk across

the street.

“We’re raising the level of awareness and directing enforcement at

areas with a combination of vehicle and pedestrian traffic,” Guay

said. “We do [stings] mostly in the downtown area, and we did it in

La Crescenta/Montrose. It proved it doesn’t matter where we go.”