By Linda Taaffe

Joe Hu/Town Crier

Town Crier Staff Report

The Los Altos Police Department reinstated its motorcycle traffic team Friday, more than a year after pulling officers from the special unit due to unprecedented employee turnover. All special unit officers were temporarily assigned general patrol positions in order to fill in vacancies until the 33-member department was able to retain more officers.

Officer Paul Arguelles, who was part of the city’s first traffic team, and former Schools Resource officer Brent Butler are responsible for covering approximately 200 miles of Los Altos streets.

They are scheduled to patrol Los Altos during peak commute hours and at night during the holiday season.

The city’s first traffic unit hit the streets on their Kawasakis in March 1998 under a two-year Office of Traffic Safety grant. The team had such an impact, the city budgeted for a third traffic officer position a year later, which was unable to fill due to competition from local hiring sprees, police said.

City reports show that speeding decreased, injury accidents dropped and driving attitudes changed

The police department’s annual traffic unit report for 1999 showed that speed-related accidents dropped 61 percent from 1997 before Los Altos had a traffic team, or from 36 accidents to 14 in 1999. Alcohol-related accidents dropped by 69 percent since 1997.

Each traffic officer averaged about 87 citations a month.

Police said the traffic team last year issued 1,629 citations for moving violations; 687 citations for non-moving violations; and 232 warnings.

Former Police Captain Cliff Balch said surveys showed that drivers reduced their speeds to a level of 10 mph or less over the posted speed limit in areas where there was regular speed enforcement.

In areas with infrequent and decreased enforcement, drivers gradually increased their speeds over time, but not to previous levels, Balch said.