Hear from Goodyear Police Chief Santiago Rodriguez on how police are keeping speeds down and drivers safe in Goodyear. Plus, Chief Rodriguez busts some of the most common traffic myths.
Hear from Goodyear Police Chief Santiago Rodriguez on how police are keeping speeds down and drivers safe in Goodyear. Plus, Chief Rodriguez busts some of the most common traffic myths.
Coming up on this episode of Growing Goodyear.
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:A lot of people think that the police department has these quotas that we have to write X amount of tickets or else we don't get revenue or we don't get this or whatever. We have no quotas, it's up to the officer in their decision making just depends on the situation.
Jordan Byrd:Welcome to the Growing Goodyear podcast. I'm Jordan Byrd.
Tammy Vo:And I'm Tammy Vo with the city of Goodyear.
Jordan Byrd:And to me, you know, traffic and driving on our roadways is something that everyone has to do, regardless of whether you're actually driving a vehicle. It may be public transportation, it might be a bicycle, you might even be walking on a sidewalk, but it's all connected. It's all relative. And here in Goodyear, the Goodyear police department is really working to keep our streets safe, regardless of whether you're in a car, truck, bus or walking on the street.
Tammy Vo:Jordan, today we're talking to two individuals who we hope will help you look at our roads driving, staying safe just a little bit differently the next time you go out there to share the roads with everyone else. So first of all, we're going to take some time to speak with Chief Rodriguez with the Goodyear Police Department. This is just a wonderful opportunity, I think for everyone to just get to know him just a little bit better.
Jordan Byrd:And then we'll talk to a Goodyear resident who had first hand experience on how dangerous traffic accidents can be, and how the Goodyear Police Department has stayed involved in her family's life.
Tammy Vo:But first it's time for our Fast Five with Chief Rodriguez. What is your favorite movie or TV show?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:CHIPS. I won't forget it. Even when I was little before I even knew that I was gonna be a police officer. I loved watching CHIPS.
Jordan Byrd:And I swear we did not plan this, but the next question was, when did you know you wanted to be a police officer?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:The grade school that I went to there was a patrol officer. And the interesting part is I don't remember his name. But I remember his canine Max. That is probably where I first had a thought I want to be like him someday.
Tammy Vo:What is your favorite holiday?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:I would say my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.
Jordan Byrd:What's something on your bucket list that you haven't yet achieved but would like to?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:If I had a bucket list would be to take a six month vacation where I traveled to some part of the world and literally instead of just being there for a week or two or three, integrate myself into their culture.
Tammy Vo:What do you love most about being Goodyear's police chief?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:I love everything about being Goodyear's police chief where do I start? I love Goodyear. I love the citizens. I love that they have trust in us as a police department.
Jordan Byrd:And we're talking with Goodyear police chief Santiago Rodriguez, Chief first of all, thank you so much for joining us here on the Growing Goodyear podcast. And I know law enforcement is the thing that's on the top priority for a lot of residents not only here in Goodyear, but all over the place. And one of those main areas is traffic and traffic enforcement and keeping the roadway safe. Because really, when you think about it, it's something that everyone does, whether they're in their own vehicle driving or using public transportation, we have to get places we have to use roads. So very broadly, how does the good your police department handle traffic enforcement and traffic related issues that are present here in Goodyear?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:First of all, thank you for having me, traffic is something like you were saying that affects us all doesn't matter where you're at. So we do a couple of things. We know that traffic is just not designated to vehicles. I think a lot of people think of roadways, they think of vehicles, but we have pedestrian traffic that uses those roadways. Also we have obviously bicycles that use those roadways, we understand that there are one set of traffic laws, but they affect vehicles, they affect pedestrians, they affect bicyclists. What we try to do here and good year is try to find out either through citizen based contacts, or through maybe crashes that happen looking at where they're happening, and so forth. And we do what's called a selective enforcement. So the motor officers and then the traffic officers we have in cars, they will select an area to go do selective enforcement, if they're not already responding to something else, right. So in between their calls for service, let's say we feel that if we can use the three E's and traffic, which is education, enforcement and engineering, we could take enforcement and then stop somebody and educate them. We may have stopped them from getting into a crash down the road. Now we'll never know those things, right. It's the same concept of an officer pulling over somebody that's impaired. We will never know if a mile down the road they were going to crash or if they were going to hurt somebody. However, what we do know whenever we can stop a crash from happening will also help us in the fire department world. Because when you think about it when a crash happens what you get it Is the police department and then you get the closest fire truck to go over there and help out. If we can avoid that we can keep that fire truck in service. For somebody that's having some other type of medical condition, it could be a choking, it could be a drowning could be a heart attack. So our goal is not only to reduce these traffic offenses, but hopefully reduce the calls for service that we tie our fire department up with, so they can respond to other things.
Tammy Vo:Chief we recently posted a question on our social media pages, which was basically, for drivers, what frustrates you the most about other drivers on the roadway? And oh, my goodness, we got hundreds and hundreds of comments can imagine. Oh, yeah, people have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this. Tell us about from police's perspective and your officers. What are you guys seeing more of on the roadways these days? That's frustrating for y'all. And what do you what are you trying to really wrap your arms around?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:I think we have to talk about speed. And we have to talk about things that people do that distract their attention, while driving. Also, I think they both may come hand in hand, just seems like everybody's in a hurry, got to get more done with less time. And then that equates to I got to get from point A to point B faster, taking risks and going through a light going around the corner without coming to a complete stop. I feel that that is one of our biggest things is that people are too much in a hurry. And really, when you look at it, you're not saving a ton of time, it's probably happened to you where somebody speeds by you cuts you off and continues forward. But yet in about 15 seconds, you're right behind them again at the write up. They can't go any further. So if people could really take a second and think about it, and we rather you get there safely, if we can control that, I think that we will get people from point A to point B safely.
Tammy Vo:You said they seem to be more of a hurry these days? What has changed? I mean, how long have you been an officer for?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:So I came to the city back in 1998 as a reserve officers, but I was hired in 2000 full time here. So I would you know obviously say 23 years, full time, I've seen this place grow. When I first started coming out here, there was no traffic lights, west of Litchfield. It was all even getting off the freeway were still stopped signs, there was no lights, getting off the freeway, any of those things. And I've seen it grow from two lane roads to you know what we have now three, four lane roads, I don't know if it's just because there's more cars on the road. So people think that it's going to slow them down. So they need to get in front of that car, they need to get ahead of that car or progress forward. I think people are just society itself is just faster, times the same, right? 24 hours a day, but think people are just trying to pack more into one day, which makes them hurry around instead of really saying hey, I can't get to that meeting, because there's no way I can plug it in between these two other appointments. Maybe I need to reschedule that for tomorrow. But I think people are trying to do more in one day than they've ever done before.
Jordan Byrd:Talk a little bit about in terms of technology, you mentioned that you've been full time on the force. Now for 23 years, technology has been a great thing in some areas. But in terms of now everyone having a smartphone in their car or in their hand, or even some of these vehicles now that can be self driving and may kind of give the operator a false sense of security. How has technology kind of played a factor good and bad and traffic enforcement?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:Yeah, technology has played a factor and newer vehicles obviously have played a factor. So when people go on by vehicles, usually they're looking at it from the perspective of how is it going to make my life easier, or quieter. So what happens is in the cars of today, when you're doing 65 miles an hour, it doesn't feel like 65 Miles us it feels like you're doing 40 miles an hour. So the potential is you may be even speeding, not even knowing about it because it just you don't feel it in your car like you did 15-20 years ago. I think that that technology, because it's so easy for so practically do anything that we need to do from our cars. I mean, you get all kinds of excuses. Well, I'm sorry, but I was trying to get tickets and I couldn't pull over because I'm late for work. So those are the excuses that we do get or I have to go to the bathroom, you know, and I just I gotta go but it's crazy when it comes to that. We hear all those types of excuses. Earlier you
Jordan Byrd:Earlier you mentioned the three E's education, enforcement and engineering. How does Goodyear police go about educating drivers the proper, safe driving habits?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:Officers have the ability to decide what they're going to do on their traffic stop. Some of them will write warnings. Some of them will give warning some of them or write a ticket depending on the circumstances. We all know that there are different types of drivers. There are new drivers that haven't been driving very long. There are drivers that have been driving for a very long time. So that's what we give the officers the ability to do Add what is the best platform to get the message across the safety message across and sometimes with our new drivers, a warning goes a very long way. We try to educate just as much as we do enforcement, because a lot of people think that the police department has these quotas, that we have to write X amount of tickets, or else we don't get revenue, or we don't get this or whatever. We have no quotas, it's up to the officer in their decision making on what's the best outcome for that situation that they're at? Just depends on the situation, right? It depends on what happened on that traffic stop. How fast were you going, you know, is this the first second, third, fifth time that we've stopped you for speeding? So really depends on those things. And that's where all three of them play a factor.
Tammy Vo:Let's talk about maybe another misconception drivers might think because oh, you know, I'm driving a little bit over the speed limit. There's like this grace area of maybe 10 miles over the speed limit that I can have before I get pulled over for a ticket. Any misconceptions or myths in terms of that for drivers that you would like to share?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:We understand some people think that they should be able to speed and go over 10 miles or 11 miles. And I think some of the misconceptions with the 11 mile mark was at one point in time in the state, we had these photo radar cameras that were parked along the side of the freeway, or they were installed in certain cities and so forth. And many of them were triggered by the 11 mile mark, it seemed like so I think some people have that misconception. But the end of the day, what the officer is judging when he's doing speed is one gathering your speed. But how are you operating your vehicle, because you have to operate your vehicle in a safe manner. It is your duty, it's not up to us to just enforce when you don't, it is every drivers duty to operate their vehicle in a safe manner to avoid a collision or to avoid something happening. And when you're in a school zone, it's not going to be 11 miles over it's probably going to be two or three miles over. So if you're going 18 miles over, you're probably going to get stopped. Because once again, the situation warrants a different right, the faster you go, and the more time it takes for you to stop. So there is no misconception. I mean, the radar that our officers are using are very accurate, usually plus or minus one mile. And they get tuned every day. So technically, if it's 45, and they see 48, you could get stop, you're above the speed limit. Now, does it happen all the time? No, I'll be the first one to tell you even when I was a motor, it depends on the speed in that area and what you're working so that selective enforcement I was telling you about. If you know that you're able to stop cars that are going 15 miles over the speed limit, and you're going to focus on those higher speeds, because that's what we want to bring down first. So that is a misconception. I mean love and Miles hour, there's no there's no threshold there, the threshold is really the officer working the area. And depending on what the issues are in that area, and then they judge it by using that.
Jordan Byrd:It really sounds like there is a human element to it that maybe the average resident isn't familiar with, they may just think that it's cut and dry black and white. This is the rules of the road. But from what you were describing, it really sounds like there's a human element to all of this.
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:Yeah, and if I can take a say, and not just about, you know, our traffic enforcement, I know we're talking a lot about traffic enforcement. The human element is in our officers, the officers are not robots. They're humans, like everybody else, they have the same thought process. And they have feelings, and they know how they would like to be treated. And they treat other people the same way. And I think that you're right, I think people think that there's just this black and white rule, right that this Robocop is gonna put the kickstand down, get off the motorcycle and go right up there and just, you know, rattle something off, here's your ticket, and off you go, right? It isn't many times we understand that taking a minute or two and talking to that driver, and discussing the issues that are happening, or what happened is more than given them a ticket and then go on paying a fine. Some people are fine doesn't affect them at all. They you know, if you're rich and you have lots of money, the$100 fine is not going to be anything to you. But if I sit at the side of the road, and I give you the facts, or what could have happened or what has happened and educate you is going to be more meaningful many times to our drivers. So it is not unusual for all of our officers to give out more warnings than they do tickets because that is the educational component. And we do try to handle those things at the lowest level when we can, but at the same time when the officer is there. And this is the third time I've stopped this person for speeding and I've already educated them two of those times. Then the next level would be to write a ticket. That's the humaneness from the officer
Tammy Vo:As the chief of police in Goodyear. What is it that it If anything keeps you up at night?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:I think one of the main things that keeps me up at night is the safety of my staff and the officers that are out there that are protecting us while we sleep. Because there's probably no worse feeling than being afraid to go to sleep because you think something's going to happen or being afraid to go to sleep, because you don't have trust in a police department. But knowing that our officers are out there protecting them, while families sleep at night, to go to work the next day, or kids to go to school. Those are the things that keep me up at night in the sense of their safety, right? Because the most important to me is is our staff, my biggest fear is to get that phone call that one of my officers is injured or has been killed. Go and talk to a mother or a father or a spouse, or even children is not the conversation I want to have. So those are the things that I worry about is the health and safety of our of our officers. I also worry about our community. This is why I got into the business is because I want to be part of our community. And I do worry about people. Anybody that knows me knows I'm a blue and knows that I care about people. And I think that that is one of the qualities you gotta have when you're a public servant, either a police officer, firefighter, or even somebody who works in emergency room or a teacher, those are the things that you want to focus on is how do we make it better for other people? And how do we keep people safe for me, what does keep me up and I have a little routine. Every night before I go to bed, I got my prayer set out that it's not only for my family, but it's also for my law enforcement family. And it's for the people of good year, too, that we service. I mean, that's the other thing is that I don't want anything to happen to, to any one of our citizens.
Tammy Vo:And I know that you so much mean that. I mean, if any of us here at the city know you, Chief, you're just like a big teddy bear. You have a very big, big heart. And, you know, when you say those things keep you up at night. That is the truth. And I think what I love about our city as well in our residents is we see so much comments, you know, from our residence, always just truly appreciating what you're talking about what your officers are doing every day. I mean, if you've ever call 911, you remember that time I've called twice in my life in the middle of night, and of course, who shows up law enforcement, police, and they are the ones they're putting their lives on the line, unsure if they'll come home at the end of the day. And I see that our residents so much appreciate. I appreciate that. And just mad love and respect and props for the Goodyear Police Department, all the officers out there who are doing that 24/7.
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:Yeah, thank you. And it means a lot to us when we hear from our colleagues that we work with, but also from the community, it truly makes us feel good. And that's the recognition. That's what makes her dispatchers, our staff, our professional staff, our officers, I'm sure our firefighters get up every day, right and put that uniform on and come back out. That's the gratitude they get because many times I'll get a phone call chief, what can we do for all the officers? What is it that they need and all that. And, you know, for the officers, a simple thank you when you see them out there, or thank you for your service, which we hear quite a bit. It doesn't get old. And I hear I've heard it a lot. But I enjoy it every time that somebody comes up to me and says that I take a moment and thank them for their support. And I get to meet somebody new that I don't know, those are the moments that really keep us going and know that we're doing the right thing. I can't say enough about our good year Police Department. And it's not just because I'm the chief here. But we have an amazing police department that truly cares about what they do at the level that they do it at.
Jordan Byrd:So if there's any residents out there listening to this who have any questions or concerns about traffic or anything that the Goodyear Police Department does, how can they get in contact with you or the department itself?
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:So I've always had an open door schedule. And it's not as easy as just hey, you can swing by and I'm available. But I've always kept my door open to anybody that wants to come and meet us. And if for whatever reason they can't get me I have two other deputy chiefs that also believe in the same philosophies and the same thing. So somebody will, we'll sit down and talk with them and meet with them. But we also have a program that we have for our residents here. We have a ride along program and it's the best community based police program that we have, you get to sit up front next to an officer on a shift and watch that officer make split second decisions having to react to you know, the calls for service. And you get to really see from their perspective, what they see happening around them. And we've made many of friends just by that in the sense of coming out and spending a few minutes with one of our officers and seeing it from that perspective. Because it's easy you to talk to the chief. But when you're sitting next to the officer and watching them, do it, you get a different perspective.
Jordan Byrd:Chief Rodriguez, thank you so much for joining us and sharing a plethora of information that I think will be so valuable to our residents. Thank you for taking the time. And thank you for what you and your department do on a daily basis.
Chief Santiago Rodriguez:Thank you very much for having me and obviously representing the department just know that we are here to serve our public.
Jordan Byrd:You know, to me, one of the things I really took away from that conversation with Chief is just how human police officers are. I think so many times we feel like they are these authoritative figures that there's not even a real person behind the badge or behind the uniform. But as chief mentioned, there really is that personal touch, especially for the residents that live here and Goodyear employee.
Tammy Vo:Your perspective of a police officer can change so quickly based on your own experiences. And for one woman who lives in Goodyear. Her name is Mary Ann Coy. She spoke to us about a very personal and really scary experience years ago that really turned her life upside down and changed her perspective on the year police.
Jordan Byrd:Mary Ann, first of all, thank you so much for joining us on the Growing Goodyear podcast.
Mary Ann Coy:You're welcome. I'm pleased to be here.
Jordan Byrd:And if you could explain a little bit about your history, your traffic accident that you had here in Goodyear,.
Mary Ann Coy:It was May 5 2005. And I came to the bridge gone over the Gila river. And I see this guy coming towards me and he's starting to cross the center lane and my first thought was he's playing with the radio or something he's going to realize and jerk back. Well, he never did he sideswipe the woman in front of me, which was probably a good thing because it probably slowed him down a little bit before he hit me. And then he just hit me head on. We found out later that he was high on crystal meth. So anyways, I was stuck in the car, the car door would not open. And I thought that I had broken my leg because it just it felt like it was broken. I could not really move officer Rodriguez who is now the chief of police and officer who are the first ones on the scene. And officer Rodriguez. He told us later that when he first got there, he thought that there would be no survivors because of how far the cars had bounced apart.
Jordan Byrd:You mentioned that you kind of saw it coming a little bit I did. But all of this is still happening in just a matter of seconds split decision making has to be done. And for something like that to be so catastrophic to happen in such a split second. It really even though you did kind of see it coming, these incidences, traffic accidents can really come out of nowhere. And in the blink of an eye, you're now involved in a traffic accident, right?
Mary Ann Coy:And that's what we always tell people you know, you never know, each morning when you wake up. Is that going to be your last one because that could have very easily been the end for me.
Tammy Vo:You're in a scenario where you're thinking, Man, am I going to survive this? And then you have someone come to your aid. In this case, it was two officers who were right there first on scene. What did that mean for you in that moment to have those people who were there to help you?
Mary Ann Coy:Well, it really put me at ease, you know, because like I said, I was so afraid when it first happened that my car was going to go up in flames or whatever. So once I knew the police were there, and the fire department was there. It put me at ease as much as it could. I think here in the city of Goodyear, we have such a great police department and such a great fire department. We always tell people how great they are here. It put my mind at ease knowing that okay, they're here. I'm gonna be okay.
Tammy Vo:Well, what's incredible is like, I mean, we're fast forwarding several years now since you're really devastating situation, but you still are in contact with not only the police, but the police chief. I mean, has he just been in touch with you over the years.
Mary Ann Coy:You know, he he was great. when the accident happened. The very next day, he went up to our house, I was in the hospital, obviously. But he went up to our house, told my husband and my son some info on the guy who hit me. And then he also came to the hospital to talk with me. And he really wanted to make sure that we got this guy off the streets. I mean, we knew that he was working hard to get this guy off the streets so that he wasn't a menace to anybody else. After that, just because I was so grateful for what they did. I baked some cookies and took them up to them and took them to the fire department also. And then just as a way of saying thank you to Officer Rodriguez we just had him and his wife have for dinner. And we just created a friendship with him. You know, we'll stop in sometimes at the police station just to say hi, and, and you know what, there have been other times that that we have needed to police. We've used them multiple times, and, and they've always been there for us, they've always been there to take care of us, keep us safe.
Jordan Byrd:But a lot of times, when people think of police, they may think of an intimidating presence, and that they're out there looking for criminals, and they're seeing the worst of people. But we were talking with Chief Rodriguez earlier on this episode. And he was talking about the human element of being a police officer. And I think that goes into that hearing your story is the compassion that they have for the community, and specifically residents who may be going through very difficult times. Right?
Mary Ann Coy:Absolutely. And I think you see that also, with the coffee with cops, you know, that they put out there for people to go meet them. And I know, we've met quite a few of them just by when we see them in the stores or on the street or whatever, just going up and talking to them. And then they're always so willing to talk and they're just great people.
Tammy Vo:And I think oftentimes, it also depends on your interaction with police, right? Like, you know, if you've been pulled over if it's been in other cities, those are sometimes the connections in the impressions that we get and make about law enforcement, right? Is there something about the police officers in our city that to you feels different?
Mary Ann Coy:You know I think they open themselves up to us, you just feel free to be able to go up and talk with them. Sometimes I'll see them sitting in the car, we'll go up to talk and I think, Oh, I hope we're not interrupting anything. You know, I hope they're not eating lunch or whatever. I don't know. But they're always they roll the windows down. And we'll just sit and chat with us. And it makes you realize that they are just everyday people also.
Jordan Byrd:When you go back to the your accident, and I know you weren't at fault in that accident. But after the fact did it change the way that you drove around at all?
Mary Ann Coy:You know, for a long time, I didn't even want to get behind the wheel of a car again, I you know, it scared me. And any time I would see a car even coming close to that center line, it would kind of freak me out. Personally, I think I'm a pretty safe driver. So I think I was always a pretty conscientious driver. But I was also kind of a nervous driver, you know. And then after the accident, I will admit, I was pretty nervous to get behind the wheel of the car again, than when I went out to buy a new car after a two it was like, Okay, I want something big, with lots of airbags. That's going to protect me.
Tammy Vo:You've lived in the city a long time. And now we're at a point where we are growing so fast, we're the ninth fastest growing city in the country, you probably see a lot of interesting drivers on the street. And that's probably changed a lot for you. If you could send a message to the other people who you're sharing the road with every day in the city, what would that be?
Mary Ann Coy:Number one, I think would be to slow down, you know, driving up and down the hill up to Estrella Mountain Ranch on Estrella Parkway. It's like a race way up there. People really dry fast, I would say to slow down and to pay attention to your surroundings. I mean, so many people looking at their phones or changing the radio in their car or whatever. It's like, you know, all that stuff can wait, you know, until you're sitting at a red light or something, then change the radio or whatever. But yeah, just slow down and just pay attention to your surroundings.
Tammy Vo:If you could send a message to the officers in Goodyear and the officers in general who keep our streets safe. What would that be?
Mary Ann Coy:Thank you so much for doing the job that you do. I think we all know that. Nowadays, being a police officer probably isn't the easiest job. But they're still out there every single day putting their life on the line for us people that they don't even know. And I just want them to know how much we appreciate them and and the job that they do.
Jordan Byrd:Mary Ann, thank you so much for joining us here on the growing good year podcast, sharing your story. And also just explaining a little bit about how our police officers here in the city of Goodyear are not these intimidating presidents all the time. They're really members of our community and valuable assets of our community. So thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story.
Mary Ann Coy:It was my pleasure. I'm very happy to do it.
Jordan Byrd:Well, I think you can hear from this episode that there's a lot more that goes into policing than just the black and white speed limit was they over? Were they under was this person doing a crime or not? I mean, there really is a certain human asked back to it not only from the police department and how they look for people who may be doing traffic infractions, but also after the fact, like we heard from Mary Ann Coy.
Tammy Vo:And we really have seen how really policing in our community has changed over the years and really how the public's perspective of police has changed as well. And we hope for the better and the next time you're out there and you need help or you know, you're driving down the streets and and you see a lot of people speeding around you just consider the work and the effort that police are putting into policing the streets 24/7 Every day, and what that really means to all of us in the future of our city here in Goodyear.
Jordan Byrd:And if you ever have any questions or concerns as it pertains to traffic or traffic enforcement with the Goodyear Police Department, you can email them anytime at g y traffic at Goodyear az.gov. They check that inbox they respond to residents questions and concerns. And no matter how big or small you may perceive it to be, please feel free and contact them and make that connection with your police department.
Tammy Vo:Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Growing Goodyear podcast. And remember, it's a great time to be in Goodyear.
Close:That concludes this episode of Growing Goodyear, make sure to leave us a review and subscribe on your favorite streaming or podcast player app. If you have any questions or comments, email us at communications at Goodyear az.gov And don't forget to follow us on the city of good years social media pages