SAPD planning a major crackdown on Santa Ana’s Easter cruisers

I have gotten a hold of an email from the Santa Ana Police Department indicating that they are planning a major crackdown on Santa Ana’s Easter Cruisers. The note appears below in its entirety.

The crackdown includes numerous street and lane closures and over 100 police officers!

I don’t get it. Our city is flat broke. How is the SAPD paying for this and why are they doing this?

And why is the O.C. Register railing against the Easter cruising?  Here is what they reported, “Several law enforcement agencies, including the Santa Ana Police Department and the California Highway Patrol, are hoping to stop what has become an unwanted tradition, as visiting family members and revelers hit the streets.”

Needless to say, the Neighborhood Association busy-bodies and the Usual Suspects are up in arms over the Easter cruising.

Here is the actual email from the SAPD explaining what they intend to do to stop the Easter Cruisers:

From: McGeachy, Douglas
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 4:08 PM
To: Nguyen, Lan; Macedonio, Margarita; Kutner, Scott
Cc: Bertagna, Anthony; Rojas, Carlos
Subject: Easter Cruiser Event

Hi Lan, Margarita, and Scott,

I know I spoke to Lan about this but I wanted to give you all the most up-to-date information on the plans for this weekend’s Easter cruising. City Yard personnel will begin setting up road closures and restrictions on Sunday at 3:15 pm. We will begin our enforcement efforts around 6:00 pm and I expect the event to last between 2:00 and 3:00 am. This year we restrict traffic onto Bristol from the intersecting side streets south of 1st Street and north of Warner. Some roads will be closed and others will just have turn restrictions. Traffic on Bristol will be restricted to two lanes in each direction from McFadden to Warner, with the exception of N/B Bristol from Warner to St. Andrew where only one lane will be available. Finally, W/B Edinger will be closed from Main to Bristol and all streets intersection with the north side of Edinger will be closed. In terms of staffing, I have about 125 officers scheduled to work that night and hope to be able to address any issues but please remind the residents that, while 125 officers is a lot, it is not enough to control the thousands we will encounter.

I have already released information to Wilshire Square residents and I encourage you to release as much of this information as you’d like. I would also ask that you tell them to avoid Bristol, Edinger, and Main if possible. I will also be writing a press release in the next day or so and will ask our PIO to release it to the local media. Let me know if you have any further questions. I also would like to invite, and encourage, each of you to come out that night for a little while if you’d like. I’d be happy to show you around so you can see exactly what we are facing on Easter and it is also a good indication of what Cinco de Mayo looks like. This might also give you a better understanding of the gravity of the problem so you can better address the community’s concerns at your meetings.

Take care,

Doug

DOUGLAS McGEACHY, Commander
Traffic Division
Santa Ana Police Department
(714) 245-8210 Office
(714) 245-8190 FAX
dmcgeachy@santa-ana.org