When Curtis lost control of his illegal dirt bike, Lt. Leo Bombalicki was there to pick him up, and place him under arrest.
Bombalicki, who’s caught his share of bank robbers in the past, was on the trail of New Haven’s newest menace: young people on illegal vehicles tearing up the road.
Curtis, who’s 25, was arrested on Winchester Avenue on Sunday as part of a citywide weekend crackdown on dirt bikes and other all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). Lt. Bombalicki headed up a team of six cruisers and two unmarked police cars targeting illegal ATV use in New Haven.
In a special operation prompted by a flood of neighborhood complaints, the cops snagged 10 dirt bikes and two ATVs Saturday and Sunday.
ATVs like quads and dirt bikes aren’t designed for urban use. They’re prohibited everywhere in New Haven, even in city parks, where they’re known to rip up the grass.
As the weather has gotten warmer, illegal off-road vehicle use has been on the increase.A recent complaint on the website SeeClickFix describing a group of ATVs “barreling down East Street at top speed” provoked over 175 comments. Posters shared their many sightings of reckless dirt bikers. ATV riders reportedly roam in packs, whipping through red lights and weaving through traffic at high speeds. Several of the comments on SeeClickFix called for immediate police action to take care of the noisy and dangerous ATV menace.
“Get these guys off the road (and out of the park) before they kill someone!” wrote one anonymous commenter.
“This needs addressing immediately,” wrote East Rockette. “Please stop them before they run into us!”
“Why don’t they just sit an officer out there, in plainclothes, with backup a minute away?” wrote Streever.
As it happened, that’s almost exactly what they did. On Saturday and Sunday, two unmarked cars with plainclothes detectives were patrolling the city, on the lookout for illegal ATV use. In addition, there were six squad cars on the streets ready to respond quickly to calls from the detectives.
Their strategy, according to supervising officer Bombalicki, was to find ATV riders in action and “box ‘em in,” close in on the bikers with several squad cars and cut off their escape routes.
The weekend operations were ordered by Chief James Lewis, who Bombalicki said “wasn’t happy” about ATVs on New Haven streets.
Just past 2 p.m. Sunday, Bombalicki was cruising up Sherman Parkway past De Gale Field, where there was a baseball game in progress.
“This is a perfect example,” Bombalicki said, explaining the danger of ATV use in a crowded park. He estimated there were 150 to 200 people in the field taking in the game. You add a dirt bike whipping through there and “you have a potential for disaster,” he said.
“Look there’s a little girl running there,” Bombalicki added said, seeing a potential casualty of an out-of-control ATV in the form of a child playing in the grass.
Not long after that, Bombalicki got a call from one of his officers. A dirt biker had been spotted on Shelton Avenue. Bombalicki happened to be in the area, and in moments he had the perpetrator in his sights, turning right on Bassett Street.
Bombalicki put on his lights and sirens, and the dirt biker opened up his engine, looking over his shoulder as he tried to pull away from the accelerating police car.
After a short distance, realizing that the biker wasn’t going to stop, Bombalicki eased off the gas. The city has a no-chase policy when it comes to dirt bikes.
Cars pulled over as the lieutenant continued to follow the biker at a fast pace, keeping within a couple of blocks of the perpetrator and narrating his movements by radio to the other cars.
Up Prospect Hill, the whine of the dirt bike’s engine mixed with the sound of the siren. Right on Prospect Street. Right again on Division Street, back down the hill.
Suddenly the biker was down, skidding out as he tried to make a left onto Winchester. He got slowly to his feet and put his hands up as Bombalicki came to a controlled stop inches from him. The pursuit lasted only a couple of minutes from start to finish.
The lieutenant ordered the perpetrator, Curtis, onto the hood of his car, then placed him in the backseat. Curtis was uninjured in the fall.
Within minutes, two other cruisers and two unmarked cars had arrived. As Officers Soto and Rivera transferred Curtis to their cruiser, they noticed that he had a sock on over the front of his left shoe, to protect his new Nikes from an oil leak in his bike.
“This is a perfect example of why knobby tires do not hold the road,” Bombalicki said. Curtis wiped out because the deep tread on dirt bike tires is designed for off-road use, the lieutenant explained. That’s part of the reason why off-road vehicles are so dangerous on paved city streets.
After Officer Soto wheeled the dirt bike over to the sidewalk to get the vehicle identification number, Bombalicki pointed out the many ways that Curtis had been breaking the law. With no fender, no headlight, no brake light, no turn signals, no horn, and no registration, the bike, a battered old Honda, was as illegal as they come for street use.
Curtis had no license on him and was placed in custodial arrest, to be charged with reckless driving, driving without a license, and failure to obey an officer’s signal. Bombalicki described the charges as “E! All of the above,” after shaking hands with one of the detectives.
“Not bad for an old lieutenant, huh?” he asked his officers, who were duly impressed by the 30-year veteran’s arrest of Curtis the dirt biker.
“And I’m supposed to be off-duty,” Bombalicki said, as he drove away from the scene. The lieutenant usually works a Monday to Friday schedule, but he had volunteered to leave his Killingworth farm and come in on a Sunday to help with ATV enforcement.
Bombalicki said that apprehended ATV drivers usually face a fine and their vehicles are towed. As for what might happen to Curtis, Bombalicki said, “I don’t know, that’s not up to me.”
"Bombalicki pointed out the many ways that Curtis had been breaking the law. With no fender, no headlight, no brake light, no turn signals, no horn, and no registration, the bike, a battered old Honda, was as illegal as they come for street use."
Great job officers! But I wonder how hard they'll slap poor Curtis on the wrist for all these infractions. Without any substantial penalties, there is no deterrence.