Traffic enforcement near school prompts NAACP complaint

By Jackie Valley

Published Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 | 9:49 a.m.

Metro Police issued 92 traffic-related citations across the Las Vegas Valley on Monday as part of an annual effort to boost safety near schools. But the operation prompted a complaint by the NAACP.

The NAACP alleged that jaywalking tickets handed out to parents near Kermit R. Booker Sr. Empowerment Elementary School unfairly penalized people who live in a low-income area.

NAACP officials, who are demanding the tickets be dismissed, said in a statement that “the actions of Metro officers have tainted the memory of this day for many parents and children at Booker.”

Metro, however, said it is simply targeting schools that have a history of traffic-related problems.

“Police work does not have ethnic parameters; it does not have income parameters,” Lt. John Faulis of Metro’s traffic bureau said. “It’s what is safest for this city and our community, and that is it.”

Faulis said officers issued 14 jaywalking tickets Monday, including four near Booker, along Martin Luther King Boulevard in west Las Vegas. A motorist near Booker also was cited for failure to yield and driving without a license, police said.

“With the start of school, one of our No. 1 priorities in the traffic bureau is to keep kids safe,” Faulis said. “People all over the summer, they’re used to driving a little bit faster and not having to pay attention to school zones.”

But Richard Boulware, chairperson of NAACP's legal redress committee, said police should have notified school officials about the enforcement so they could have warned parents, he said.

Plus, Boulware said the symbolism of minority children witnessing police giving their parents tickets on the first day of school works against efforts to create a "strong relationship between the minority community and the police department."

Faulis said Metro’s traffic bureau consulted the division that oversees school crossing guards to identify 30-plus Las Vegas schools that have had traffic-related problems. The enforcement plan in effect this week includes at least three schools within each of Metro’s eight area command patrols, he said.

The NAACP said Booker parents think using the crosswalk parallel to Martin Luther King Boulevard is more dangerous than crossing directly in front of the school, where there tends to be less traffic.

Faulis, however, urged pedestrians to use the crosswalks because traffic engineering studies have determined them to be the safest place to cross the street. He also pointed out that of 50 traffic-related fatalities this year, 17 have been pedestrians.

“That’s why we treat this so seriously,” he said.

During the safety enforcement initiative near schools across the valley Monday, Metro Police also issued:

• 24 speeding tickets.

• 33 administrative tickets for non-moving violations such as driving without insurance.

• Eight tickets for seat belt violations.

• Six tickets for other moving violations.

• Two tickets for reckless driving.

• One ticket for a red light violation.

Boulware said the NAACP hopes to discuss with police how the tickets were issued.

"I'm not sure what will happen, if anything," he said. "But we're going to raise this issue."