St. Louis Police Will Enforce ATV Ban on City Streets, Effective Immediately, Chief Says

[Sherman A1]

Turns out there was something police could do about ATVs after all.

Two days after the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department seemed to throw its hands in the air, saying officers had little ability to stop packs of ATV riders on city streets, Police Chief John Hayden has issued a statement saying the department will, in fact, be taking action — effectively immediately.

“The police department has been made aware of large groups of ATV riders creating disturbances throughout the city,” Hayden said in a press release. “We are going to enforce the mentioned state statute, which prohibits the operation of ATVs in places open to the public for the purposes of vehicular traffic within the State. This includes our City streets."


If you're busted for riding an ATV on city streets, Hayden says, you could face a class-C misdemeanor. Hayden warned, "Drivers of ATVs on the streets of our City will be subject to arrest and the towing of the ATV.”

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2019/05/09/atv-ban-will-be-enforced-on-st-louis-streets-effective-immediately-chief-says

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Thanks for posting. Getting to be a problem, hopefully they'll do something like take their...

ATVs away if they're caught. These are getting dangerous, especially in the highly urban neighborhoods.

[MichMan]

2. Good luck with that

"Fox-2's report had quoted a department spokeswoman as saying, "There are no city ordinances on the books for ATVs," adding, "The problem seen by our Traffic Safety Division is that the ATV drivers will take off from the police and by policy, we cannot chase them for traffic violations."

Since they are unregistered and unlicensed, how are the police ever going to apprehend any of them if they take off?

This has been a huge issue in Detroit as well for the last several years. Just today a Michigan State Police was sentenced to 5-10 years for manslaughter after tasering a teenager who fled from the police when they tried to stop him.

Here is a video from Detroit. Would you want to put up with this in your city?

[Sherman A1]

3. According to the article

A police spokeswoman notes, however, that their call logs did not show anyone who reported actually seeing a gun, only a "subject digging in their pants," which would be harder to enforce. The spokeswoman also says police told Fox-2 they were aware of a number of options for dealing with ATVs, including the state law now being cited by the chief.

But, she says, enforcing state law on ATVs is a step that requires filing cases through the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office, not just the City Counselor. The department had previously been unprepared to do that; its records show just three ATV summons in 2017 and one in 2018.

[MichMan]

4. Can only enforce the law if those riding the ATV's stop when pulled over instead of fleeing

[Sherman A1]

5. Some will certainly get away

and some will be apprehended. Hopefully the latter will encourage those who engage in the activity to cease doing so.