LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Cops

TICKETS ISSUED IN SOUTH PASADENA (A.K.A. KEYSTONE) SCHOOL BUS STING
MAY BE DISMISSED

4:32 PM | June 19, 2009
LOS ANGELES TIMES

The South Pasadena Police Department (a.k.a. Keystone Cops)has
requested that more than 150 traffic citations issued Wednesday to
drivers during a school bus sting be dismissed.

Designed to nab motorists who violated a vehicle code that requires
drivers to stop for school buses with flashing red lights, the sting
involved two police cadets walking on and off a school bus parked on
Huntington Drive near Milan Avenue.

However, the vehicle code says drivers may not pass a school bus with
its red lights flashing when it is “stopped for the purpose of loading
or unloading any schoolchildren.”

After meeting with the city attorney, the Police Department decided
this morning to ask the courts to dismiss the citations, which were
reported earlier to be $500 each.

Citations start at $150, but with added penalties they can rise as
high as $1,000. “We didn’t meet the requirements for this code,” Capt.
Richard Kowaltschuk (a.k.a. Mack Sennett) said.

“Although we will be asking for the citations to be dismissed, we have
to remember the reason we did it on this street was we had in fact
gotten a complaint from someone who lives on that street who has a
child with a disability who uses a school bus.”

The sting was set up after the department was contacted by April Cash
and her husband, Ryan Bodily,  whose 6-year-old daughter, Zoey, is
deaf, mentally disabled and blind in one eye.

The family lives on Huntington and fears for Zoey’s life when she’s
being dropped off by her school bus. “People never stop, and she’s
been riding that bus for the last 2.5 years,” Cash, 32, said. “She’s
strong and she’s gotten away from us and started running down
Huntington.”

Cash was surprised to learn that the department was asking for the
citations to be dismissed.

“That’s really upsetting,” she said. “If they need a decoy in the
future, I’m happy to be with my daughter as she gets on and off the
bus for as long as it takes to make sure she’s safe.”

Matthew St. George, a Superior Court commissioner in Alhambra, was at
the site for the sting, but, according to a Police Department
statement, “he was present to observe the operation, but does not
provide legal opinions.”

Kowaltschuk said that if the department’s request for dismissal is
approved, letters will be sent to those who received tickets during
the sting, informing them they do not have to appear in court.
“Absolutely there was an error made, and it doesn’t look good on us,”
he said. “We made a mistake.”

-- Corina Knoll