BILL ANALYSIS �
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Date of Hearing: May 2, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
ACR 33 (Harkey) - As Introduced: March 7, 2011
SUBJECT : State Route 5
SUMMARY : Designates a segment of State Route (SR) 5 as the
Officer Richard T. Steed Memorial Highway. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Recounts the life and career of Richard Steed, a police
officer with the San Clemente Police Department who was killed
in the line of duty.
2)Designates the segment of SR 5 from San Diego to San Clemente
as the Officer Richard T. Steed Memorial Highway.
3)Requests the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to
determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with the
signing requirements for the state highway system showing this
special designation and, upon receiving donations from
nonstate sources sufficient to cover the cost, to erect those
signs.
EXISTING LAW : Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating
and maintaining state highways. This includes the installation
and maintenance of highway signs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Richard (Rick) Thomas Steed enlisted in the United
States Marine Corps after high school and served for eight
years, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant and serving a tour
of duty in Vietnam. He was awarded a Navy Commendation Medal, a
Good Service Medal, and a Combat Action Ribbon. While still on
active duty Rick became interested in law enforcement and became
a reserve police officer with the San Clemente Police
Department.
After receiving his associate of arts degree in criminal justice
from Saddleback Community College, Rick was hired as a full-time
police officer with the San Clemente Police Department. He
attended the Police Academy at Los Medanos College, where he was
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elected class president.
On his final patrol shift, on November 29, 1978, Officer Steed
answered a call for medical aid in an adjacent beat. He
announced his arrival to the dispatcher and indicated that he
saw a subject approaching from behind his vehicle. As he exited
the car and turned toward the subject, Officer Steed was
immediately, and without provocation, shot twice with a .38
caliber handgun, and died from those injuries. A massive
manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies resulted in
apprehending the suspect and retrieving the murder weapon. The
suspect was incarcerated in a state mental hospital.
Officer Steed is the only San Clemente police officer to die in
the line of duty. He was enshrined on Honor Rolls in the Santa
Ana Courthouse, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C., and named in
the Honor Roll and Officer Down Memorial Internet Web sites, and
on memorial bricks in the Vietnam section of the Saddleback
College Veterans Memorial and at the Marine Corps Museum in
Quantico, Virginia. Additionally, a 64-acre park and sports
complex was named the Richard T. Steed Memorial Park, and a
plaque prominently displayed at Park Semper Fi near the San
Clemente Pier.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093