CITY/SHERIFF PURCHASE NEW T3’S FOR TRAIL AND PASEO PATROLS!

The City of Santa Clarita’s 60 plus miles of trails and paseos provide a great place for recreation, relaxing, and even an alternative means of commuting that is friendly to the environment They can provide convenient, efficient, and uninhibited travel from one area of the city to another and a great environment for exercise and recreation. However, the same great characteristics that make these areas so beneficial and attractive to our residents can also provide a convenient means of transportation, access, and seclusion, for those with ill intentions. These unlawful activities are a frequent concern of our residents who have expressed their desire to see more visibility, patrols, and a stronger Sheriff’s presence in these areas.

A unique challenge created by the seclusion and ruralness of these paseos, is the ability of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station personnel to access them in the event of an emergency, to respond to calls for service, or to just conduct day-to-day patrol check operations. Many are not designed for access by deputies in patrol cars and walking several miles of the trail to look for a suspect, suspicious person, or teenage groups who might be partying, is not always possible or practical. In recognizing these challenges, the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station personnel partnered with the City of Santa Clarita to explore alternative means of providing visible and effective patrols in these areas, in an effort to ease any community concerns or complaints about the paseo systems and help maximize their use and community safety.

The City has just purchased two, T3 Series Motion, three wheel electric personal mobility vehicles for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. Although the current Sheriff’s Bicycle Patrol Program has been very successful and effectively used on these trails in the past, it also has its limitations. As a result, it became necessary to explore alternative paseo patrol options and new technology. The popular Sheriff’s Bicycle Patrol Program will continue to be used in addition to this new program.

Through this partnership with the City of Santa Clarita, a new Paseo Patrol Program is being implemented which will utilize these new electric vehicles. The T-3’s can reach speeds of up to 25 miles per hour, feature a zero-degree turning radius, use an efficient electrical motor system, are environmentally-friendly with zero gas emissions, and are completely equipped for emergency response. They operate at a cost of 10 cents per day of electricity which is equivalent to getting 500 miles per gallon in a car. They are stable while stationary or when moving, and are fully equipped with law enforcement LED emergency lighting packages. Utilizing these vehicles, the deputies will be able to cover several miles of paseo patrols in a single shift, will be able to carry equipment necessary for patrol and enforcement operations, and can operate at any time of the day or night.

Further, these electric mobility vehicles will be available for use at other functions within the City of Santa Clarita such as Concerts in the Park, the 4th of July Fireworks Show, holiday mall patrols, the AMGEN tour, park patrols, and many other events that draw large crowds and are not easily accessible by standard law enforcement vehicles and responses. The T3 Motion devices can also be used at large scale emergency operations, such as the October 2007 wild fires, for information sharing at wide-spread command operations such as Central Park. These vehicles will also be useful in other CIT and COBRA operations to combat criminal challenges, such as graffiti, vandalism, drug use, sexual assaults, and gang loitering on our trails and paseos and in our residential areas. They can also be an effective tool in crowd control situations. Look for T3 Motion electric mobility vehicles on a paseo or in a park near you soon! Questions can be directed to Sergeant Darren Harris at 661- 255-4991.