Ralph Nuno, aka the Scooter Cop (not to be confused with Bike Cops) is a very elusive figure. He is a police officer who is seen riding around on what might appear to be a larger version of the generic kick scooter, much like the kind that children play with. It's called the diggler. It has 4 motorcycle batteries and can hit a max speed of about 32 mph. You can sometimes see the cops playing with it around the UCD police/fire building and the WEPS. The Scooter Cop has been seen at the Memorial Union yelling at students to walk their bikes and at Aggie Stadium during football games.
With that minimum usage, this seems to some like a trivial usage of funds for the UCDPD. While the Segway vehicles that various police departments use for similar events and purposes cost several thousand dollars more and don't have the speed burst, they add a lot of height, maneuverability and greatly expand the officers view. Although it might have seemed better for the UCDPD to invest in a bicycle fitted with a stronger electrical motor, this scooter still does offer some height, probably didn't cost over a thousand, and gives the officer more freedom of movement (could jump off the scooter and run easier than one can from a bicycle). And come on, it's neat!
In the late 1990s, while he was working for the Oakland Police Department, a female civilian employee filed a sexual harassment claim against Officer Nuno. Discipline for this claim was overturned but not because it wasn't true, but rather because the arbitrator ruled that harassing behavior was so endemic to the Oakland police force that it would have been unfair to single Nuno out for it. Here is a quote from his legal defense regarding the case:
The arbitrator declined to determine whether the overall atmosphere in the [police] unit constituted a hostile work environment for the complaining party.
[The arbitrator] simply determined that it would be unfair to single out Nuno for discipline when virtually everyone in the unit engaged in similar conduct and the supervisors permitted the atmosphere to exist. —Press Release, PORAC Legal Defense Fund (March 1, 1998)
Later, over two dozen officers in the Oakland Police Department would be implicated for raping a 16-year-old child, behavior which OPD supervisors knew about for months before it was reported.By that time, Nuno had left OPD and joined the UC Davis police.
Below, he can be seen inviting a female student to ride on the back of his scooter.
Officer Nuno helping students out by ForestNeel-Grant
Ralph Nuno was featured in an an anonymous editorial published in The California Aggie on May 5th, 2009. This seems to be the earliest mention of him working at UC Davis.
2009-08-10 00:14:43 It is actually an electric scooter that can get up to 35 MPH for short periods. You can sometimes see the cops playing with it around the UCD police/fire building and the WEPS. Why UCDPD bought it I don't know... It seems like a waste of money to me. —ARWENNHOLD
2009-08-10 09:28:06 Are you sure it's 35mph, and not maybe 25mph? Even that would surprise me, electric based tends to be very weak. Vespa-style riding scooters in the 50cc gas-powered class can't top 35/40mph really, and electric versions can't top 20/25. To think of a 'kick scooter', I'm guessing a Go-Ped style, I really don't think that thing can get even close to 35mph. And that is pretty fast, a low-slung long Go-Ped style scooter at that speed is pretty risky/unsafe. I'd bet it has a top speed of 20 to 25mph, maybe normally cruises around at 10 to 15. Is it custom-modified somehow? Or actually gas-powered? —ES
- This comment is pretty much null after JA posted a picture. It wasn't the sort of "kick scooter" I had assumed it'd be. However, I'll stand by saying that even 32mph can be pretty risky for this thing, and that he likely tends to cruise around 20/25. -ES
2009-08-10 19:46:21 I'm just going off what I saw and the cop said. He could have just been trying to show off to the FD. It is electric and it does go pretty quick though. —ARWENNHOLD
2009-08-19 13:17:19 This is a great idea. I like anything that gets the police out of their cars and into the community. —Graham.Freeman
2011-11-22 21:22:11 This officer (Ralph Nuno) used to work for Oakland Police Department. Here's a little bit more about him:
"After an investigation, the Department suspended Nuno for ten days for sexual harassment. Nuno appealed through the legal defense fund of the Peace Officers Research Association of California to an arbitrator.
The arbitrator reversed the suspension. The arbitrator concluded that not just Nuno, but a significant number of employees, engaged in the sort of sexual banter which formed the basis for one of the complaints against Nuno. The arbitrator held that since the City permitted such an atmosphere to exist, it had not placed employees on adequate notice that such conduct could result in discipline."
So he was suspended for sexual harassment, but the conviction was overturned because, well, OPD is filled with a bunch of cops who sexually harass women. So I would think twice when I look at that picture with the girl on his scooter. ftp —MK47
