By Will Jason Marin
San Jose Mercury News
BELVEDERE, Calif. — From a distance, Bob Smith appears lifelike behind the wheel of a Belvedere police cruiser, a cup of coffee resting on the dashboard. When he is near, passing drivers reach for the brake pedal with heightened alertness, knowing they are in the presence of the law.
A closer look reveals the sheen of his plastic skin when it is hit by sunlight. “Officer Bob” is a mannequin.
In the year since it was acquired by the Belvedere Police Department, the mannequin -- the only one in use in Marin County -- has become a fixture in the city of about 2,200. Tourists stop to take photographs. Residents bring out-of-town guests for a look. Sweet Things, the Tiburon bakery, provided an empty coffee cup to make the decoy car more believable (a plastic doughnut has gone missing).
“What I didn’t anticipate was how popular it would be,” Belvedere police Chief Steve Fracolli said.
Belvedere’s police department long has used a decoy police car. Several years ago it saved a vehicle that was too old to keep in its active fleet and parked it throughout the city to discourage traffic scofflaws and would-be criminals.
Last year, Fracolli ordered the mannequin from an online store that has supplied other police departments in the United States.
“I was looking at that car and thinking, ‘What can we do to make that car more effective?’” he said.
The name, “Officer Bob,” came from the manufacturer, and “Smith” came from a former Belvedere officer whose uniform the mannequin now wears.
For local drivers, it is no secret that the officer parked in their neighborhood could be a dummy. But the mannequin still improves safety because it causes drivers to pause or at least slow down at stop signs, Fracolli said.
“If it gets people looking at the car and thinking about it a little bit, they’re going to hopefully stop,” Fracolli said. “You want them to slow down at least to the point where they’ve checked and everything is safe.”
Police move the mannequin around town about twice a week, enough to keep drivers guessing, Fracolli said. Some residents said they have driven past what they believed was the decoy car, only to be surprised by a real officer.
“We all look in the car when we go by,” said Donna Gray, 68, of Belvedere. “If you think that (the dummy) is there, you’re in trouble, so you really can’t assume that’s who it is.”
Belvedere police Officer Tiffany Greenberg, who was hired this year, said even she was fooled the first time she saw Officer Bob. Greenberg slowed down when she drove past the dummy before she joined the department, she said.
“He got me,” she said.