by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
Remote control in hand, Mayor Justin Elicker stood alongside Police Chief Karl Jacobson and North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda — just a few steps away from a Sims Metal “High Speed Crusher” that held six stacked ATVs in its maw.
Elicker pushed a button, and the crusher’s crusher descended, as two dozen TV news cameras, city officials, and police officers from throughout the region waited for the crunch.
That was the scene Friday morning in the back lot of the New Haven Police Department’s academy and garage at 710 Sherman Pkwy.
The cops, politicians, and camera crews had assembled to watch the city undertake its inaugural destruction of police-seized, illegally operated ATVs and dirt bikes.
Eighteen such vehicles were lined up and ready for the smash Friday morning. Jacobson said New Haven has roughly 120 ATVs and dirt bikes in its custody. Those vehicles have been seized over the past two years — largely thanks to the work of a city-led regional taskforce that includes cops from nine different departments, including New Haven, North Haven, Woodbridge, and Orange. Jacobson singled out Lt. Derek Werner for praise for leading the anti-illegal-ATV-riding effort.
“Do not come here riding these,” Jacobson said, gesturing towards the brightly colored off-road vehicles that all too often are illegally ridden on city roads. “They will end up in that and crushed.”
Friday’s smash came thanks to new state legislation that allows municipalities to destroy, and not just auction off, seized ATVs and dirt bikes. These vehicles are difficult for the police department to catch, Jacobson said, given that city cops can’t chase them or use stop sticks or StarChase because of the danger such tools could present to riders, police officers, and the public. These vehicles often end up in police custody thanks to investigative work done with the help of drones, and when the ATVs and dirt bikes run out of gas.
Elicker and Jacobson also pointed to recently increased fines — up to $2,000 a pop — for illegal dirt bike and ATV riding. Now, thanks to this new state law, “we can crush these things,” Elicker said.
Freda said that he has been caught up in two illegal street takeovers, and can testify from firsthand experience as to how dangerous and disruptive they are. “People were being pointed at,” he said. “People were being bullied.”
City Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Justin McCarthy said that, after these vehicles are crushed, the metal will be sent to the scrapyard. The city has no use for this material and won’t be holding onto it.
West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith, the vice chair of the aldermanic Public Safety Committee, also sits on the committee that hears appeals by riders who have had their ATVs or dirt bikes seized by city cops.
“To the community, you have been warned,” she said on Friday. “To the residents, you have been heard.”
City comms staffer Ali Oshinskie takes a last video of the pre-crushed ATVs.
Fair Haven Alder Frankie Redente and On Scene Media New Haven County’s Kevin Morse do the same.
Alder Smith: “Stay off the street or your bike will be crushed.”