Learning from bodycam footage of police response to road rage collision

Back in June I shared the story of Vivek Jeevan, a man who believes he was the victim of a road rage collision while on a group bike ride. Jeevan called 911 and a Portland Police Officer responded to the scene and take a report.

There were several things about this case that piqued my interest. First, I know Jeevan from his work as a cycling and road safety advocate in our community. He’s a League of American Bicyclists Certified Cycling Instructor, he owns a bicycle riding education business, and is a dedicated local cycling advocate who could be found on Saturdays over the summer volunteering for Bike Loud PDX at the downtown farmers market behind a table with a sign that read, “Take a bicycle safety quiz.”

So when Jeevan expressed his dismay about this incident and his disappointment in the way the officer responded to it, his concerns carried more weight in my mind than a typical source.

The law this incident hinged on — that requires bicycle riders to use a bike lane when one is present — is one I’ve covered at length over the years. It’s also a law Jeevan knows very well. In a twist of irony about this particular collision, in 2023 Jeevan organized an effort to change the law that was inspired by a Portland woman who claims she was improperly cited for breaking it while riding downtown in 2022.

Given his concerns over what happened on Northeast 7th Street back in June, Jeevan requested bodycam footage from the incident. His request was initially denied on the grounds that there was no public interest in the footage. Jeevan appealed the denial on the grounds that BikePortland was interested in reporting on the findings and the PPB reversed their decision and granted his request. 

I’ve watched and listened to the footage. It’s rare that we get this type of access to police interactions and the footage provides a valuable window into how some police treat bicycle riders an incidents they’re involved in. I believe it highlights a pervasive cultural bias that favors drivers and is skeptical of bicycle riders, and it shows how that bias plays out in some police-cyclist interactions.

Below is my summary of the footage.

“So, you were going north on 7th. What lane where you in?” Officer Williams asked Jeevan at the outset of their exchange.

“The main lane,” Jeevan replied. “I was part of about 25 cyclists…”

“Were you in the bike lane or were you in the car lane?” the officer interrupted.

After Jeevan once again began to explain himself, the officer once again interjected. “So you overtook the main lane?” he asked Jeevan, to which Jeevan tried to reply that he didn’t “overtake” anyone and that he was just riding straight. But the officer immediately challenged him: “Nah, you just told me you were in the main roadway where you’re not supposed to be, when there’s obviously a visible bike lane. Because it’s available to you, you’re required to use it.”

At this point the two continued to talk over each other at times and it was clear the officer didn’t want to take time to listen to what Jeevan was trying to explain to him. As Jeevan (a very soft-spoken person who is not one to lean into conflict) grew frustrated and continued to explain the context of what was going on prior to the collision, Officer Williams spoke over him to say, “That does not matter.”

“I’m a certified traffic instructor. I teach traffic skills,” Jeevan pleaded, trying to break through and earn respect in the conversation, only to have Officer Williams speak over him to say, “Yeah. Perfect. Awesome,” in what sounded to me like a dismissive and disrespectful tone.

Jeevan tried again: “Cyclists are allowed to use the traffic lane, right?” “Yes,” the officer ultimately acknowledged.

The officer then moved on to asking about the collision itself. Bear in mind, this happened in a  complicated context where Jeevan and one other rider had been gapped by the larger group of about 25 riders. As the two riders approached the intersection of NE 7th and Holladay, Jeevan says one driver began to rev their engine and then pulled in front of them. As he typically does, Jeevan was riding sweep and was supporting the other rider who was with him. He says he was taking the lane (outside the bike lane), riding two abreast when the first driver zoomed past, and that once the driver was in front of them he moved back out of the bike lane to check in with the other rider. It was at that point, Jeevan alleges, the second driver became aggressive too.

In the bodycam footage, Jeevan explains to PPB Officer Kyle Williams that as the light turned red he and the person he was riding with began to signal a stop. “Then we heard someone from behind yelling, ‘What are you doing? Get out of the way!’ But it was a red light [it might have been a stale yellow, I haven’t been able to determine exactly] and we were stopping anyway, and for some reason, [the driver] came up from behind and didn’t like the fact that there were bicycles there and he drove right into me.”

“He drove right into you?” the officer asked.

“He drove into me,” Jeevan replied. “In a way that hit me with his side view mirror and it collapsed, and that became a crash so I called it in.”

Officer Williams then walked across the street to interview the driver, who I’ll refer to by his initials, JK.

“So what happened?” the officer asked.

“He’s out in the bike lane and I’m trying to get by,” JK replied. “So I beeped and I don’t know if he hears it or not, but all he does is just look back and then, like, was just determined to stay there, so I squeezed by him.” Then JK, in an attempt to demonstrate that he didn’t intentionally run into Jeevan, added, “I know how close my car is to somebody, and if I wanted to hit him, he’d have been on the ground.”

“So what happened when you were coming up to the intersection?” Officer Williams asked.

“He was out, nowhere near the bike lane,” JK answered. “So I go around them… I honked, he didn’t get over, so I squeezed by.”

At one point during their exchange as the officer and JK discussed whether the signal was yellow or red, JK became frustrated. In an attempt to calm down JK, Officer Williams said, “Hey, hey hey, it’s just an accident… It’s okay. It’s not a big deal.”

Then JK tried to blame his damaged mirror on Jeevan. “That guy [pointing to a witness] saw [Jeevan] hit it,” JK told the officer.

“So you made contact with him [Jeevan]?” Officer Williams asked.

“No I didn’t make contact. He hit my rear view mirror on purpose… With his elbow.” JK replied.

The driver seemed frustrated that he was put into this position, that his mirror was damaged, and that his insurance premiums might go up as a result of the collision. You can hear the officer try to calm him down several times. “He’s not claiming any injury… I just have to write a report due to the fact that it’s a bicyclist. You’re not in trouble,” Officer Williams reassured him.

“My insurance? You’re not doing nothing with that, come on man!” JK pleaded with Officer Williams. “I haven’t even checked to see if it’s valid!” the officer replied.

After stepping away for a minute, the officer came back to JK with his verdict. “So I’m writing up the report. It’s non-injury, non-damage — It’s just saying that I spoke to you guys and said you guys are okay. You don’t have to report it to DMV. If you had to report a crash to DMV, then it’d be a problem. It’s just gonna be like, ‘Hey, I spoke to you both. You guys said this happened. Nothing happened.’ That’s literally all it is. All right, you can go chill in your car.”

The driver continued to bemoan the situation, so the officer added, “I don’t know why you’re upset. This is, like, the best solution.”

“I just can’t believe you guys are here,” JK said as he walked back to his car.

“I know, that’s ridiculous,” Officer Williams replied.

After Officer Williams was finished filing the report in his patrol car, he walked back over to JK. “Like I said, you’re not in trouble,” the officer said to JK. Then, referring to Jeevan, he added, “He’s also some, like, certified bike instructor guy…”

“Then why is he not in the lane?!” JK interjected.

“I know. I already kind of said that [to him] too,” Officer Williams replied. “So, Portland has weird laws for bikes, so he’s technically right, but he’s also ignorant at the same time.”

“It’s just flat out inconsiderate, trying to be king of the road,” said JK.

“Yeah, he was definitely ignorant and I agree with that,” Officer Williams concurred. Then he added, “There’s no injury, so you’re good, all right? You’re good to go.”

When Officer Williams returned to Jeevan one last time to sum up his conclusions, he said, “There’s no criminal nature here, so [the incident] is just documented. There’s no injuries, so no one needs to report to DMV.”

Then, in a contrast to the more friendly banter with the driver, Officer Williams blamed Jeevan for what happened, called him ignorant, and lectured him about what he should have done differently to avoid it. “My suggestion would be to use the bike lane… you easily could have moved over and prevented that hostile situation and just have been the bigger person,” Williams said to Jeevan. “He [the driver] also could have been the bigger person by not doing it. Honestly from my point of view, you guys are both ignorant and you guys both instigated each other. So I got somebody saying that you tucked your elbow out there, but the other person saying you got hit by the thing. That’s what it is. That’s it. Have a nice day.”

And without waiting for Jeevan to respond, the officer was already walking back to his patrol car. Jeevan, a bit stunned by it all, said “Thank you.”

What’s notable to me about these interactions is how differently the officer spoke to the two men. There was sympathy, patience, compassion and collegiality in the officer’s tone and demeanor when he spoke to JK that was absent when he spoke to Jeevan.

Unlike what he did to Jeevan, Officer Williams didn’t give the driver unsolicited advice on what he could have done differently and he didn’t call the driver “ignorant” to his face. On the contrary, the officer agreed with JK, insulted Jeevan to him behind Jeevan’s back and went out of his way to assure JK that he wasn’t in trouble, that he did nothing wrong, that was just an “accident,” and that his insurance premium wouldn’t be affected..

If you step back and look at what happened, Jeevan had a reasonable argument for being out of the bike lane at that moment. While safely using his bicycle, Jeevan was victimized by an impatient driver who made an unsafe pass, struck him with his rear-view mirror, then verbally berated him until the police showed up. Jeevan was understandably shaken up by the incident, so much so that it took him 10 days to regain the confidence to ride his bike again.

But to Officer Williams, Jeevan was just an “ignorant” cyclist who should have moved to the side to let an angry driver pass. And after a cursory investigation, Officer Williams determined both men were equally at fault and the incident was minor enough to not be reported to the DMV.

Police officers have an incredibly difficult job and they’re just fallible humans at the end of the day. But from what I heard in this footage, from what I know about Jeevan, and from what I’ve experienced myself after being stopped by PPB officers, this incident illustrates the challenge some cyclists face in interactions with police — and how cultural bias that favors drivers can make it hard for bike riders to get justice on our streets.