Ask the officer Ask the officer (July 27, 2005)

Menlo Park police officer Glenn J. Raggio answers questions about the police and law enforcement. Call 330-6396, or e-mail: asktheofficer@menlopark.org.

Q: I notice there are a lot of kids skating without helmets at the new skateboard park in the Menlo Park Civic Center. Isn't there a rule that they must wear helmets? Who enforces the rules? Also, I've seen cyclists using the park: Are they allowed to do that?

A. Helmets are mandatory at the park. I have driven by and had to stop on several occasions to warn those without helmets to put them on. Bicycles are strictly prohibited. As for enforcing the rules, that duty will inevitably fall, by default, to the police, I'm sure.

Yet I believe the citizens of Menlo Park are not eager to see an officer using valuable patrol time regulating rules at a skateboard park. So we have attempted to think of solutions to the problem. Here are some of the suggestions citizens and officers have come up with:

** If someone is found using the park without a helmet, the park is automatically closed for the day. The thinking, of course, is that this will lead to more self-regulation, since there will be peer pressure to keep the park open by having all skaters following the rules.

** Register all users and issue them an identification card. Fines can be assessed and parents notified.

** Hire a full-time park employee to enforce the rules.

I like the first option -- it wouldn't take long for the word to get out!

E-mail a friend a link to this story.