DETROIT (WXYZ) — A Detroit bicyclist recently caught his encounter with Detroit Police on video where he received a citation for riding his bike in the street. Detroit Police now say the bicyclist was not in the wrong, his ticket will be thrown out, and officers in the 5th Precinct will be retrained on bicycle laws.
Zac Young says he was running errands on February 2 around 2:30 p.m. when he was pulled over by Detroit Police near Mack Avenue and Conner Street. He primarily commutes by bike and typically uses the bike lane, but not that day.
“That day it was snowing and that whole week prior it was snow and ice and the bike lanes were just sheeted in ice and snow," Young said.
You can watch the full video here:
Young is a bicyclist advocate in the city of Detroit through the nonprofit Back Alley Bikes, focusing on community fundraising, education, and advocacy. He's aware of the laws and knows that in the city of Detroit, while it is recommended to use the bike lanes, it is still legal to ride your bike in the street. He can be heard trying to explain that to the officers in the video.
“It’s against the law to be riding in the middle of the street, in a busy street, in a turn lane when there is a bike lane provided," one officer can be heard saying in the video.
We reached out to Detroit Police, who said they were aware of the video.
“Even though they were operating with the best intentions, it was incorrect," Detroit Police Deputy Chief Arnold Williams said about how the officers handled the encounter.
In the video, one officer can be heard saying, "The city's cracking down on it". Young can be heard asking the officer what the city is cracking down on, without ever receiving a response. We asked Deputy Chief Williams for clarification.
“The city is not cracking down on bicyclists, the city is doing the same as we always do, we’re enforcing traffic laws," he said.
DPD says they are now retraining officers, and Young's ticket is being thrown out.
“I know that the command did re-education on both the officer and the supervisor, and I know they’ll also be briefing their entire precinct, and I know there’s been conversations with our training academy to make sure every officer is aware of those laws," Deputy Chief Young said. “We will be making sure that we educate our department, and we will make sure that they know the laws of cyclists.”
Young says he had no idea his one video would create so much change, but he's glad that it did.
“We’d like change, we want people to feel comfortable, to feel safe riding their bicycle on the road to get where they need to go," Young said.
Detroit Police apologized to Young, saying they'd like to move forward from this in a positive way.
“I’d like to apologize on behalf of the department to the cyclist for any inconvenience he was put through for that stop," the Deputy Chief added.
