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Motorists speeding down Telegraph Avenue, beware. Officer Bob Rollins and, on occasion, his partners are lurking on side streets, their radar guns firing. 

Wednesday afternoon found Rollins, a Berkeley motorcycle officer, on Carleton Street where he has stationed himself for the better part of the last month. 

“If I find a place where I see a lot of violations, I’m going to stay there until they stop,” he said. 

Rollins’ work on Telegraph, just blocks from Willard Middle School, hasn’t just aggravated lawbreakers. 

“There are sirens going on all day long,” said Thomas Cooper, a Telegraph restaurant owner. 

What angered Cooper most was that the sign alerting northbound motorists that they are approaching a school zone is partially blocked by a tree. 

“Obviously they have to enforce the law because there’s a middle school here, but instead of bleeding money out of people they could do something about the signage,” he said. 

Despite a new sign warning drivers that fines are doubled in the school zone surrounding Willard, Lt. Bruce Agnew said the rule was not yet in effect while city and county officials hammered out accounting procedures.  

Last October, the City Council approved double fine zones for the five school campus determined as the most dangerous for students walking to class: Willard, Malcolm X Elementary, Berkeley High, Berkeley Alternative, and Longfellow Middle. 

Once the double fine rule is in effect, Agnew said police would more actively patrol the school zones. One day last week, he added, all five Berkeley traffic officers performed a sting on Telegraph between Ashby Avenue and Dwight Way citing drivers for numerous violations, including speeding, failing to yield to pedestrians and making illegal U-turns or left turns over double yellow lines. 

Not everyone around Telegraph was upset to learn of the stepped up traffic enforcement. “It sounds like a good idea to me,” said Patricia Dacey, a member of the Willard Neighborhood Association. “Bad drivers and middle school kids don’t mix.” 

Pam Webster, a member of the school district’s traffic safety committee, also supported stepped up enforcement near Willard. “Although I haven’t seen the individual incidents, in theory enforcing traffic laws will make streets safer for pedestrians.” 

Officer Rollins said he came to Telegraph after a woman he pulled over in a different neighborhood told him about bad drivers on the street. Just today, he said, someone he pulled over said a lot of people were running red lights at Woolsey and Telegraph. “That’s where I’m going to go next.”