By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The 14-year-old black and white Ford Crown Victoria sporting a big city of Yachats logo sits at a slight angle along U.S. Highway 101 on the south side of town.
Inside is a battered mannequin, a castoff from two other coastal cities. It sports a bright orange vest, hat and dark sunglasses. Yes, the seatbelt is fastened.
Visitors speeding north into town get a quick glimpse, see the mannequin’s profile and hit the brakes just as they reach the 25 mph speed limit sign and attached reader that flashes their speed.
“Officer Creepy,” as the city’s utility workers have jokingly dubbed him, and his fake police car have done their job – getting drivers to slow down as the highway snakes through the center of town crowded with traffic and tourists.
“When I see that black-and-white car my first reaction is to check my speed and take my foot off the gas,” David Buckwald, the city’s wastewater department leader, says of the fake cop car. “And I know what’s going on.”
While Highway 101 funnels thousands of visitors and locals into commercial districts each day, speeding drivers create safety issues and hinder foot traffic to businesses lining the road.
Fake cop cars – Waldport and Depoe Bay once used them – are one way of trying to get people to slow down.
So several mornings each week, utility workers Jeremy Mabe and Kevin Kentta drive the car to the north or south side of town, park it on the highway shoulder and prop the mannequin in the driver’s seat.
Cop car and mannequin
The old cop car has a boring past. “Officer Creepy” has had a more colorful career.
The city of Yachats bought the car at a state of Oregon surplus auction in December 2016 following a discussion about about speeding problems. The car with more than 99,000 miles on its odometer cost $1,530.
The city just had to promise it wouldn’t use the car as a real police vehicle, said Joan Davies, who was city administrator at the time.
Davies said Oregon Department of Transportation officials endorse the fake-cop-car-along-the-road ruse “because statistically they have found it’s the best thing you can do” to slow drivers down.
“Speeding through town is always an issue,” she said
It took Yachats 11 months after it bought the car to add the mannequin, thanks to an informal networking system between three small coastal cities.
Nine years ago emergency responders in Waldport got a call about a body floating in the Alsea River. It turned out to be the mannequin – minus its legs. City workers stored it for a couple of years, occasionally using it for gags around town, said John Alfano, retired Waldport Public Works director.
“Then when we got a surplus cop car we said ‘Hey, we can dress it up like a cop and set it inside.’ ”
And so the mannequin — nicknamed “Deputy Dan” there — started his law enforcement career, working for 2-3 years until Waldport stopped using its car.
About that same time Depoe Bay started parking an old police car around town. Tom Aldrich, a salesman for Ferguson Waterworks who has called on coastal cities for years, knew of something that could enhance Depoe Bay’s car.
“I just asked Waldport if Depoe Bay could borrow the mannequin,” Aldrich said.
While the dummy worked to help slow drivers, there were some problematic side effects in Depoe Bay.
Tourists occasionally thought the fake cop was real, said Brady Weidner, city superintendent, stopping to ask directions. A handful of times people called 9-1-1 because they saw an officer slumped over in the car.
But the end of Officer Creepy’s career in Depoe Bay came one weekend when city workers parked the car on the north side of town but forgot to lock the doors.
College students partying in nearby condominiums got into the car, Weidner said, “and had their way with the mannequin … and there were some college girls involved and you can kind of take it from there.”
“He became a You Tube sensation,” he said.
So the mannequin was banished to the basement of Depoe Bay City Hall.
By then, Yachats was parking its new, but empty car around town. Larry Lewis, who at the time was contracting as city planner for Depoe Bay and Yachats mentioned to Davies that Depoe Bay had a mannequin in purgatory.
So it moved south.
Since then, Officer Creepy has also become a crime victim. He used to have a plastic badge pinned to his orange vest. But someone recently reached in through an open window and snatched it, Kentta said.
Although Yachats has installed ODOT-approved permanent flashing radar-activated speed signs on the north and south sides of town, city workers believe Officer Creepy is still effective at his job.
“He does have an effect on speeders, especially tourists” who aren’t aware of the ruse, said Buckwald. “As soon as people spot the car you can see their brake lights come on right away.”
Editor’s note: A version of this story first appeared in the Newport News-Times in 2018.