Barrington Chief of Police Michael Correia with Jim Hummel - E-Bikes

Barrington Police Chief Michael Coria. Welcome to WPRO. Hi, Chief. How are you? Hi, Jim. How are you? Good. I appreciate you making some time for me today. I've been following this through the Barrington Times and just because I ride the East Bay bike path a lot, but set the table for, set the table for the people who may not be intimately acquainted with what's going on out there with these scooters. How big a problem have they become? It's become a sizable problem for many communities, not just on the East Bay, but throughout the state. I talk to a lot of chiefs weekly every month for sure, and a lot of towns are experiencing trouble. Well, the problem, it's a multi-pronged problem. It's a multi-pronged problem. It's the use of e-bikes on the bike path, right? The only one type of e-bike can be used on state bike paths, that's a class one, which is pedal assist, and it brings you up to 20 miles per hour. Anything with a throttle or anything that goes to 28 miles an hour, they're prohibited from being on all the state bike paths. And I would imagine that's pretty regularly violated, right? It is. My sense is from... emails and phone calls I get is yes. And it's difficult. The bike path, I think the bike path, it's, it's so successful that it's almost become, it's part of the problem because of how successful it is. There are so many users, multi, just different types of users on the East Bay bike path, for instance, specifically, there are. People riding bikes for exercise. People riding bikes just recreational. People using that to commute from the East Bay into the city of Providence. Kids learning to bikes, people walking dogs, people walking, people running. It is, it's a busy place. And when you add. e-bikes capable of going 28 miles an hour on there, it can become very dangerous. So the problem is, the staffing levels, it is a tough spot to enforce. The rules are promulgated by DEM, by the state. But, you know, their staffing is an issue just like the staffing in all, you know, all 39 communities in the town. So that's one part of the problem. So the bike path, before we get to the second part, so the bike path, I know this from doing stories. DEM really oversees the maintenance and the cleanup and kind of the supervision. The DOT has done work on it in terms of they need to, you know, tear up sections of the bike path and repave it. That's kind of the, you know, the hardware that they do. When it comes to enforcement and law enforcement. Is it DEM? Is it Barrington Police? Do you work together? What is the enforcement mechanism on the path itself? I think it's an effort. It's a group effort. And again, it's, you know, priorities. There's a limited amount of staffing in every police department. And, you know, we're doing the best we can do to keep up. But there's, you know, whether it's speeding on roads, the bike paths, there's a multitude of issues that face any chief in the state.

And staffing levels, unfortunately, do dictate that you have to make some decisions on where you prioritize things. Maybe you can get one of the environmental policemen to park his big F-350 at one of the intersections and see how that goes over. I think I'll look into that. Yeah, you want me to all suggest that to Terry Gray, the director. You don't have to do that. But that's my son years ago when he was like nine or ten. He goes, Dad, the environmental police, they're driving these huge trucks. How does that make any sense? But that's a whole side issue. So we talk about class one. And then how many classes are there? It goes various e-bikes. Yeah, there's three classes of e-bikes that are recognized. by the federal government and state legislature, class one, two, and three. A three is pedal assist, but it can go to 28 miles per hour. Class two has a throttle, and class one is strictly pedal assist. There is an unclassified, I won't even call it any bike because it sounds like a bicycle. These are literally electric dirt bikes. And these are, they look like a little, like a little dirt bike, a little mini bike. They're electrified. They're capable of going 50 miles an hour. And these are what you see, young kids buzzing around town. The other night we had, we had two 14-year-olds. We had a couple of incidents over the course of a week. And I commend the Barrington Police. They put some, they did a little investigative work, used some open source social media. identified the people. You can't pursue anyone on a motorcycle, right? It's just because it's creating more danger than you're trying to prevent. And what they did was they attempted to stop these kids. They took off. Well, they had already identified where they lived. They went there, and then when they came back, they had conversations with parents. So my concern is I'm not looking to criminalize 14-year-olds, but what I'm looking to do is is prevent serious injuries. These bikes are flying. There's some recent data that I've seen from Hasbro. The number of serious injuries coming into Hasbro Hospital are staggering. Just to give you a little example, over this is year-to-date data.

From last first seven months of 2025, excuse me, throughout all of 2025, 85 visits to the Hasbro Emergency Department for e-bike, e-scooter-related injuries. 85 visits to the entire 2025. First seven months of 2026, 143 visits to Hasbro Emergency Room due to e-bike and e-scooter. accidents and it's led me to say it's a public health concern it really is Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake C. Toll. See, now it's on demand. My podcast is kind of a radio thing, I think, but also it's a bit of a TV show, and it's about whatever I want it to be. It's listening live as it happened, when it happened, with the instant reaction. You're home for talking sports. We go back, the Drake Toll Show, Westwood One Sports Network, and there will be on demand on your radio. Anywhere in the country, I'll see you there. Westwood One Sports Talk, your home for Drake C. Toll. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. I would imagine I would imagine chief that look there needs to be some education here and Look, this has been going on in Barrington. I'm a product of the Barrington school systems. I've been there a long time. And I'm not going to throw all the parents under the bus. You've got good parents there. But in a lot of these cases that I read, the parents seem to be oblivious. Or the kids are lying to their parents. Or the parents get them, apart from the scooters the other night where the kids were flipping off the cops and they were and they had no lights. I mean, they were a real public safety. I see these smaller scooters going around that kids who look to be 10, 12, 14. years old, the parents have bought these things, giving them to the kids, and there seems to be a disconnect between this could potentially be a problem if my child is out there on the road, whether they have a helmet or not. Not only the road, but the sidewalk and the bike path and all of that. Where does that fit into the calculus? Correct. So that would be the third prong of this, of this, I will call it an electrified transportation problem. So these scooters... These are originally part of like micro mobility transportation plans, meaning it's referred to like in urban settings, like first mile and last mile from whether it's bus routes or subway routes, right? So for people who don't, either you can't afford a car or you live in a city, it expands your employment opportunities, right? If you don't own a car, at times your employment opportunities are limited by bus routes. This micro mobility plan would allow you to get off a bike, off a bus at a bus stop and travel another mile or so to your job, right? And it's increasing opportunity. It's an incredibly good thing. Well, what's happened is...

Now we've got some kids, 12, 13, 14 riding these scooters. They're going quite fast. They're young. They don't know the rules of the road. Going back to last school season, a kid going to school on an electric scooter, he's operating. He passes a car on the left. The car takes a left-hand turn, and he hits the car broadside. Thankfully... It wasn't a serious injury. Two months ago in the plaza and, you know, the town shopping plaza on County Road in town, kid going the wrong direction. Power pulls out. The kid hits the backside, the rear right quarter of a minivan. Thankfully, again, not seriously injured. With that, we kind of got a little creative. I contacted Joe Palino, the Palino properties. We've, he's made a decision along with his legal people that scooters and e-bikes are banned from that property. And we're going to, I refer to it as a measured enforcement effort, meaning this. If you're a kid, you're in there on an e-bike, on e-scooter. We have a conversation with you. We call up your mom and dad. We let them know that you've got a no trespass order from using that e-scooter or e-bike in the plaza. They're on notice. If they come back again, then we may cite them for no violating a no trespass order. And again, I'm not trying to criminalize behavior. I don't operate that way. I'm trying to change behavior and make things safer. So in a case like that, if you violate it, we'll bring it to a juvenile hearing board, you know, as long as that you're amendable to that. And we're just trying to keep kids safe. And I think it's, I don't want to, I don't want to scare people. I think it's only a matter of time before we have a real tragedy in the state, you know, and hopefully not. But Massachusetts has had two fatalities of kids under 15 on e- scooters in nearby Massachusetts in the last six months. It's a serious, serious safety issue. Mike Drop, hosted by former Navy SEAL, Mike Ridland. What is your take? Was it what you expected? Oh, it was the best thing ever. It was something I always wanted to do. If you show me a clear goal, I'm like, okay, I can do that. Master Chief. He's like, you realize there's about 1% chance that you're making a 3%. That's all I need Master Chief. My platoon went home early, and I just went up to my chief, and I was like, I'm not going home. Turns out I'm staying. That's when we go to war. Yeah, I was like, okay, I could get used to this. Mike Drop, follow and listen on your favorite platform. Coming up on 118, we're speaking with Barrington Police Chief, Mike Coria. Mike, I've noticed, and if you want to chime in, if you have any questions for the chief, you know, he's on the front lines of all this. 438-9776. We'll patch you right through, 1-800-321 WPRO. Chief, I did notice the deal with Joe Paolino. Do you think the word has gotten out? Of course, I go to Shaw's and I use that plaza a lot. And I see kids occasionally, but there seems to be fewer than their word. Do you think the word's going?

on out. This has been in place, what, a couple of weeks, maybe a month? I do, Jim. And the reason I say that I basically, if you go back to last July, we kind of rolled out a measured enforcement of the class four bikes and the other type of e-bikes. And we did see, anecdotally, we saw a reduction in the use of those bikes. But then what we did see is, I think we kind of drove them towards the scooters. And the scooters are a tough situation because... Talking to different town solicitors, some people think that there's some law that's applicable. I don't think so. We worked really, really hard over the legislative session with... Representative Boylan and Senator Yuer, the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association, we worked with them. I'm currently the president. I was up at the statehouse, testified several times on trying to get some e-bike e- scooter legislation. We, you know, we fell short. There was, I think the budget was the big issue. There was a lot of big issues up there. We're going to be right back at it. We're always looking at local ordinances that can help. Again, not, I'm not looking to pad the stats with the rest in the town of Burlington. I have never, I've been a police officer 39 years. I don't think policing is, we're not revenue agents. Mike, what is it? I'm not looking to drum up revenue. I'm trying to keep kids safe, Jim. What is, and I appreciate that, what is it that under 16 state law says you can't be on what? I've heard that referred to. We had six. You cannot be on a class one, class two, or class three, eBite. Okay. You cannot be on those so-called class fours. They're class four, but those are referred to as recreational vehicles. You can't be operating one of those. Those can't be operated on the road. That's like an ATV or a dirt bike made to ride out in the woods somewhere. All right. Let's do this. At 120, let's take a quick phone call. Jim in East Providence, Nick, can you bring Jim in on the call? Jim from East Providence. Welcome to the WPRO with Jim Hummel and Chief Correa. Hi, Jim. Hi, how you doing? Hi, Chief. I'm a knee-bythoma. And, you know, for, you know, the length of time that I've had it, you know, I've been riding in the street on the sidewalk here in East Providence. And then the mayor passed, you know, an executive order saying that, you know, we couldn't ride them on the sidewalks. And I get that. But my problem, one of the biggest problems for me is, is I'm listening to this. It cost me $1,100 for the e-bike that I own, and that is not one of the most expensive ones. The average price, the lowest price that I can find for an e-bike, the ones that somewhat look like a dirt bike, but they're a little bit slower, those are $800. The e-bikes that you spoke of, the class fours,

I've looked into those because I had a nephew that wanted one. Those run around $2,500. Now, you have 14-year-olds running around acting like delinquents on $2,500 bikes. I don't think they got it delivering newspapers. That's their parents. And I understand that you're not about revenue. But this is where the rubber meets the road with me. It's literally... You have parents that are buying these things for 14-year-olds. And like you said, they're getting into accidents. They're getting injured. Now, in my honest opinion, if some kid from, you know, rumstick point that's riding a $2,000 gets cracked by somebody else, I'm sure his parents are going to hire Rob Levine to it. Make sure they're compensated. Yeah, Jim, let me hold you there and let's let the chief respond. Sure, sure. I don't know where to start. Listen, I hear your frustration. I don't think there's a police chief in the state of Rhode Island that has been hired to parent children. I try to help. All I'm saying this, I'm trying to, I'm trying to help parents. Give them some guidance. I have asked, I have strongly, you know, strongly suggested through the local Burrington media at the Burlington Times. I have strongly suggested that in the absence of e-scooter law, parents use the guidance of the e-bike law and apply it to e- scooters within their household. I think it's sound advice. And, you know, I know it. I know the difficulties of parenting. I've got three sons. Thankfully, they're all grown, they're healthy, to happy. I have three grandsons. My kids love bikes, little boys and bikes that go hand in hand. But injuries can happen. My grandson just broke his arm on the monkey bus just at the end of school, his arm. The orthopedic surgeon said e-bikes have surpassed monkey bars. Wow. So it is an issue. It's an issue. And I don't, what I'm trying to prevent is I don't want to have a real, real tragedy in Barrington or the state of Rhode Island. And then we say, boy, we should have done something. Yeah, I think in my, when we were growing up, you and I are about the same generation chief. You know, you were more concerned about catching it from your parents than you were from either the principal or the police. I mean, the police were always formidable. But if you had to face your parents and in a lot of cases, and again, I don't mean to paint with a broad bush, but you have some absentee parents and you have some parents like, hey, I got them the scooter, they're out of my hair, they can do whatever they want in the summer. And I think that that's a bit of a disconnect. Yeah, I agree. And they come, you know, parents who are either, and it's, you know, listen, being a parent's hard, right? I mean, in the town of Burlington, my sense of the town of Burlington, there are a lot of two-income families who sacrifice to live in that town to send their kids to school. Right? There's some wealth in that town, sure. There's wealth in almost every city and town in this state.

But it's hard being a parent. They're working their tails off, right? And maybe they, you know, maybe somehow they, you know, you let your eye off the ball for a little bit. You know, it's hard to say no to your children. I get that. But I'm trying to give them a little urgency. I mean, I'm supporting them in trying to keep their kids safe. I'm not looking to criminalized kids. I'm just trying to give good sound guidance to a town. that we can try to prevent a real tragedy in that town. I mean, that's all I get the control of, right? I don't even have control on the, I work for the town. I appreciate it. Chief, I got to hold you there. Barrington, Chief, Mike Coria, and let's stay in touch on this as it begins to evolve. And Sid Wardell, the Police Chief's Association Executive Director told me the laws are going to be important as you craft those for next year. But I appreciate to spend a little time with us today. Thank you, Chief. My pleasure, Jim. Thank you for the opportunity. Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake C. Toll. See, now it's on demand. My podcast is kind of a radio thing, I think, but also it's a bit of a TV show, and it's about whatever I want it to be. It's listening live as it happened, when it happened, with the instant reaction. You're home for talking sports. We go back, the Drake Toll Show, Westwood One Sports Network, and there will be on demand on your radio. Anywhere in the country, I'll see you there. Westwood One Sports Talk. You're home for Drake C. Toll. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.