GILROY
– Officer Joseph Crivello is all about being a motorcycle
cop.
Ever since designating Crivello as the full-time Gilroy police
traffic officer, the department’s plan has been to get him on a
motorcycle. Now it’s happened.
GILROY – Officer Joseph Crivello is all about being a motorcycle cop.
Ever since designating Crivello as the full-time Gilroy police traffic officer, the department’s plan has been to get him on a motorcycle. Now it’s happened.
Since last Thursday, Crivello can be seen patrolling city streets on a new BMW bike, complete with a radar gun, flashing lights, siren, Gilroy Police Department emblems and “Officer Crivello” scripted on the front fender.
He also has a new patch on his uniform sleeve, a winged wheel with the words “police motor officer.”
This is a dream job for Crivello, who has wanted to be a motorcycle cop ever since he was a kid. Remember the intro to “CHiPs,” where the camera flashed through a montage of California Highway Patrol officers’ motorcycle accouterments? Crivello definitely does. The television show was his inspiration, he admits with a touch of embarrassment. He was a faithful fan as a kid, and he still looks for the reruns.
“I guess you could say I’m Ponch,” he joked Monday. “I can’t be Jon. I don’t have the blond hair.”
To know the extent of his fandom, you need to hear his cell phone. It rings to the show’s theme song.
“Everyone thinks I’m a dork, but that’s OK,” he said. “We all do dorky things.”
A motorcycle has advantages over the 2002 Chevrolet Camaro Crivello formerly drove for traffic patrol: It can go between cars in heavy traffic, it’s easier to park and it’s easier to monitor traffic without being seen.
The Camaro is now parked, awaiting its next assignment.
As an unexpected down side of the motorcycle, Crivello will need to use more sunscreen. On his second day on the bike, his arms were already getting dark.
Early this year, Crivello became the city’s first designated traffic officer in 12 years. There had been talk of bringing the position back since before he joined the force four-and-a-half years ago, he said, but he had to wait until the 2003 city budget added an extra police officer’s salary. Crivello had always preferred traffic patrol to other duties, he said, so the beat was a good fit for him.
When the GPD announced Crivello’s appointment in December, they said they would have him on a motorcycle by May. That deadline was extended two months while waiting for the bike to arrive, which it did last month. In the meantime, Crivello attended four weeks of motorcycle training in Mountain View, an academy hosted by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Assistant Police Chief Lanny Brown was Gilroy’s first and last motorcycle cop. From 1989 to 1991, he and Capt. Scot Smithee patrolled the city’s streets as full-time traffic officers: Brown on a motorcycle and Smithee in a Ford Mustang. Before joining the Gilroy force, Brown rode a motorcycle with the Nevada Highway Patrol.
Despite Crivello’s desire to be a motor officer, he hadn’t ridden a motorcycle regularly in 12 years, when he rode one for about a year-and-a-half after high school.
He doesn’t own a personal bike, either.
“I’d love to,” he said. “Too expensive. … I can’t see myself spending all that money on a motorcycle.”
The bike Crivello now rides on patrol cost about $17,000, fully outfitted. BMW is one of three companies that make police bikes, he said, Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki being the other two. While BMWs are the most expensive of the three, they are also the most comfortable – important for an officer who spends most of his shift on the bike. They also have the most safety features, including anti-lock brakes.
And yes, it’s the one the Highway Patrol uses.
