Evanston Alderman Has Second Thoughts About Bicycle-Light Mandate
(CBS) -- An Evanston alderman wants the city to re-think its enforcement of an ordinance that requires lights on bicycles at night.
It's not that 9th Ward Ald. Brian Miller is against the ordinance that mandates lights on bikes, he says.
It's the way it is enforced. He says it's one thing to stop a bicyclist and issue them a warning.
But last summer, he says, when a juvenile was stopped for not having a light, he got upset and police charged the teen with resisting arrest.
"To me, if a kid doesn't have a bike light and they end up charged with resisting arrest, that's ridiculous," Miller says. "We shouldn't be having that much of an adverse impact on a kid's life because they didn't have a bike light."
Ald. Miller says he wants to start a discussion and come up with a policy directive from the Evanston city council on how the bike light ordinance is enforced.
A spokesman for Evanston Police Department says in the case cited by Miller the bicyclist disregarded police and didn't stop immediately.
He says police have a duty to investigate crimes. For instance, Cmdr. Joe Dugan says, "We go to a call about a domestic and recover a handgun."