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The purpose of this page is to bring together articles pertaining to traffic patrol and highway patrol duties so that diverse skills, techniques, tips and humor may be passed on, and the need to "re-invent the wheel" is minimized.
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Relevant or Amusing News Items (Some of these articles will also appear on our International Road Safety News page)
It seems people are paying attention to the fact those uniquely marked police vehicles around the region could show up anytime, anywhere.
Numbers released on ICBC's Community Crash Reduction Challenge last week
proved that people were more conscious of their driving habits during
the month of October in the Capital Region and around the province. "What that shows us is if we do the enforcement and we have the visibility on a continual, day-to-day basis, that we are able to make an impact on drivers," said Sgt. Del Manak of the Integrated Road Safety Unit, which has been patrolling the region's highways and monitoring traffic around high crash locations for more than a year. "If it reduces crashes, it reduces the impact on our communities." Full story, from the Saanich News, BC
An innovative Pennsylvania State Police traffic safety program that blends technology and targeted enforcement has earned national recognition for reducing crashes and saving lives, Governor Edward G. Rendell announced today. Governor Rendell said the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration presented a 2005 National Roadway Safety Award to the Pennsylvania State Police for its Problem Specific Policing/PROphecy program. Pennsylvania was one of only nine states recognized nationwide, he said. "Pennsylvania is using this program to save lives," Governor Rendell said. "It has helped State Police cut fatal crashes by a remarkable 7 percent between 2002 and 2004. State Police commanders are using this computer software to quickly identify problem areas and deploy troopers to target dangerous driving behaviors. The result is fewer fatal crashes." State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said that under the Problem Specific Policing approach, troopers use the global positioning systems in their vehicles and a computer software application called PROphecy to map and categorize traffic crashes. "The maps pinpoint trouble spots by time, day of the week and location," he said. "The data helps our commanders assign personnel when and where they are needed. Also, troopers hit the roads knowing what driving behaviors - such as speeding, drunken driving or tailgating - are causing the problems." Miller said State Police began using the PROphecy program in May 2003 and the number of fatal crashes investigated by State Police dropped from 744 in 2002 to 689 in 2004.... [Source: Pennsylvania Office of the Governor]
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol Academy's class is down to just 50 cadets after testing and background checks eliminated hundreds of people who applied. The patrol is short 94 troopers and hasn't had an academy in the past three years because of statewide budget cuts, but has two academies this fiscal year, including one that began in August. There were 872 applications and 627 applicants were scheduled for testing. Of those, 365 showed up and 228 passed, but after background checks and interviews the number was cut to 65. Now just 50 remain. Lieutenant Pete Norwood says the academy is similar to a military boot camp and cadets are put through as much mental stress as physical stress. [Source: KOTV]
CHP resorts to index cards when computers go down SAN DIEGO – A problem with the California Highway Patrol's computer system Wednesday morning forced dispatchers to use 3-by-5 index cards to track emergency calls reporting traffic accidents and requesting service. The glitch, which began shortly after 7 a.m., affected the computer-aided dispatch system in the traffic management center in Clairemont, said CHP Officer Jim Bettencourt. "We are back to pre-computer time dispatching," he said. "I'm not sure if the entire state has gone down or not," Bettencourt said. "As of right now, we are operating with nothing here." As of 10:30 a.m., the computers were still down.... Full story, from SignOnSanDiego
.......Budget cuts between 2000 and 2004 have reduced the number of [state troopers in Oregon] by 36 percent, according to statistics reported Wednesday in The Register-Guard. Meanwhile, speeding citations have dropped 29 percent, driving complaints have increased 70 percent and crash complaints have increased 32 percent. Speeding may not sound like a serious offense. Yet it’s a factor in about one-third of motor vehicle fatalities, according to 2003 information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. By contrast, alcohol was the sole cause of 25 percent of traffic fatalities in Oregon in 2003, according to The Associated Press. The risks of speeding are even greater for people in their first few years of college. About 33 percent of males and about 19 percent of females ages 21 to 24 involved in fatal crashes were speeding, according to the NHTSA.... The solution to increased speeding is two-fold. Foremost, drivers must understand the risks of speeding and slow down. Oregon’s Legislature must also find ways to prioritize funding for public safety, specifically putting more troopers back on the roads.... Full article ('Pedal to the metal for public safety'), from the Oregon Daily Emerald
An oversight in the Traffic Law may allow numerous convictions for drunk driving to be reversed. In a recent case, the crown lost its prosecution against an expatriate male in his early 30’s for drunk driving.....
DSA Comments This article has been included here in the hope that it may prompt people in other national and regional jurisdictions to double-check that their relevant 'breath, blood or urine' legislation will not permit another lapse in justice in this manner. Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc.
Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Todd Larkins was killed yesterday in a roadside incident. Ironically, an article about his good deeds, helping a stranded family on July 4, appeared in yesterday's Dickson Herald — the day Larkins died when he was struck by a tractor-trailer as he stood beside his parked patrol car during a traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Dickson County.... The driver of the tractor-trailer.... was charged last night with vehicular homicide and was being held without bond in the Dickson County Jail, a sheriff's spokesman said. THP Col. Lynn Pitts said a recent state law directing motorists to move away from the emergency lane when possible to avoid emergency vehicles "for some reason didn't happen here. It (the truck) went from the driving lane to the emergency lane instead." The new law followed a similar incident last year involving Metro Police Officer Christy Dedman, who was killed when she was struck while helping a stranded motorist along I-40 on the east side of Nashville. Among other, close family members, Trooper Larkins is survived by his wife, Alicia, and his 12-year-old daughter, Carina. Full article, from The Dickson Herald, via The Tennessean
MOSCOW (Itar-Tass) -- Traffic policemen are marking their professional holiday on Sunday. They will go to work in formal military [uniform?] on the day when the 69th anniversary of Russian traffic police is marked. However, despite of the festive mood traffic policemen will still be strict to drivers who violate the traffic rules. At present about 118,500 officials work in traffic police, and about 60,000 traffic inspectors ensure security on Russian roads round-the-clock. However, the work of traffic policemen is not only difficult, but also dangerous. About 230 traffic policemen were killed and more than 650 were wounded when performing their [official] duties in 2004 alone, the traffic security department of the Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass. Drunken drivers often knock down duty inspectors on the roads. They also fall victims of car hijackers.... Full story here, from ITAR/TASS
The second year of a study of traffic stops made by Pennsylvania State Police concludes that "there continues to be no consistent evidence that Pennsylvania State Troopers make stopping decisions based on drivers' race and/or ethnicity." The conclusion is included in the Police Citizen Contacts Year Two Final Report released today by State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller. The independent study was conducted by Dr. Robin S. Engel of the University of Cincinnati and a team of researchers at the request of State Police. The report is available to the public online through the Pennsylvania State Police Web site at http://www.psp.state.pa.us/ "The study was implemented voluntarily by State Police to ensure that troopers are following the department's policy specifically prohibiting bias-based policing," Miller said. Source: Pennsylvania Department of State Police
DSA Comments In many developed countries this issue is clearly a minefield for the police. As conscious as every reasonable person should be about the dreadful and unacceptable implications of racism, it is also an inescapable fact that racial-minority population groups are also frequently less wealthy as a group. In terms of vehicle safety and road safety, any experienced traffic patrol officer will tell you that poorer people, for obvious reasons, will often use badly maintained vehicles, perhaps with inoperative lights, worn tires, failing brakes, and quite possibly no insurance. So how, then, do law enforcement officers reconcile the possibility of racial accusations made against them, with the extremely desirable task of preventing road deaths by enforcing safety laws? Is there an answer? If there is, we do not pretend to know it. But surely racial issues must not be put before true road safety issues, just as road safety issues should not overwhelm racial issues, either. Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc.
A juggler, driving to his next performance, is stopped by the police. "What are those machetes doing in your car?" asks the cop. "I juggle them in my act." "Oh, yeah?" says the doubtful cop. "Let's see you do it." The juggler gets out and starts tossing and catching the knives, and another man driving by slows down to watch.
"Wow," says the passer-by. "I'm glad I quit drinking.
Look at the test they're giving now!
VTI was contacted by the National Police Board of Sweden in the course of an internal investigation of a traffic accident in which a policewoman was killed. Even though there was nothing about this accident which specifically indicated that the equipment which the police carry on their uniform directly caused the tragic outcome of the accident, it gave the impetus for an investigation whether any of the many items of equipment carried on the uniform entails a risk, and whether appropriate measures might also be identified to change or reduce the risks. It was therefore decided to study the working environment of the police in police cars, by performing two collision tests....
U.K. police pursuit cars would be fitted with airplane-style 'black boxes' to help determine what happens when car chases end in death or accident under a proposal by the Police Federation. The recorders would also improve public safety by helping the police learn what happened during pursuit accidents. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Police Federation's annual conference next week, chairman Jan Berry said that only one third of police pursuit vehicles had a black box installed. The Metropolitan Police had led the way in having them installed, but overall she said the police's use of them was "patchy". Black boxes recorded the speed the car was travelling at, whether it had its siren and lights on, and whether the driver had braked before the accident, Ms Berry said. Data from black boxes had already been used to prove and disprove claims about accidents made by both the police and the public: for example, if a bystander estimated that a police car was travelling at 30mph, the black box might show it was really travelling at 52mph. Ms Berry told reporters: "When you have an accident, the type of data you get from black boxes is immense." She said the Police Federation wanted them installed in pursuit vehicles but not in all police cars because that would be "extremely" costly and that much money could be spent on more important safety features. [Source:
The Police Federation of
England and Wales]
1999: Jason Meyer, Grand Meadow police officer; crashed while on his way to help another officer. 2000: Theodore Foss, State Patrol corporal; struck by semi trailer truck during a traffic stop on Interstate Hwy. 90. 2002: Melissa Schmidt, Minneapolis police officer; shot while detaining suspect. Bradley Alan Anderson, St. Louis County sheriff's deputy, killed in a car accident responding to a call. Michael Lee, Staples Chippewa National Forest law enforcement officer, died when his car hit a deer. 2004: Thomas Wyatt, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension special agent; motor vehicle accident while on duty. [Note: during this period, two other officers died of illness or long-term injury complications.] Full article, from the Star Tribune
DSA Comments Our condolences go the families of all police and other law enforcement officers who are killed in the line of duty, worldwide. The reason we have posted this extract, however, is to draw attention to what we consider to be two rather neglected aspects of officer safety, here in the USA and that, of course, is road incidents: 1. At DSA, we have been assured that the reason many officers on highway patrol duties do not wear highly-reflective safety jackets like those used in many other countries is the fear that these simply give a gunman a better target at which to aim. But surely one needs to consider the ratio of danger. How many times in a typical day does a patrol officer stand on the driver's side of a vehicle, on the roadside? And assuming that the driver who has been stopped is maliciously carrying a gun, do they really need the addition of a reflective jacket to help them aim better at virtually point-blank range? But what about all those cars and trucks that continue to barrel past, too close and too fast? 2. U.S. law enforcement officers deserve better driver training than they currently get. The only police driver courses we are aware of in America last from two to five days, but in some other countries -- where the rates of officer deaths in crashes are lower -- police driver training can last several weeks. If U.S. law enforcement officers protect the country, surely the country could do more to protect its officers! Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc. (and a former police officer).
In Britain, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety published a new briefing entitled 'Community policing and road safety' to coincide with PACTS' conference 'Letting People in on the Act, on 15 February 2005. The briefing explores the implications of the move towards community-based policing approaches for road safety, and examines situations in which conflict may emerge. However, the briefing argues that far from being incompatible, efforts to involve the community may make roads policing more effective. Briefing notes here (pdf)
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety's research project on 'New Technologies, Road Traffic Enforcement and Road Safety' has been progressing rapidly, and publication is expected in October 2005. A paper entitled 'Policing Road Risk', which summarises some of the emerging issues and themes of the project, was delivered at the RoSPA Road Safety Congress 2005 last month and is now available for download on PACTS' website. Comments would be welcome. Source: PACTS
Thirty new high-tech police cars and 170 motorcycles began patrolling city streets yesterday, providing local lawmen with better [tools] to track down traffic violators.... The city spent about 16 million yuan (US$1.93 million) on the new vehicles.... The 30 new four wheelers, also known as the "electronic patrol cars," are equipped with a radar speedometer and a powerful camera connected to a computer system inside the vehicle. The camera can shoot pictures or take videos from any angle and swerve as rapidly as 100 degrees per second. The agile camera, together with the radar speedometer, will work automatically in shooting various images of traffic infractions, such as speeding and illegally cutting lanes. The images could provide vivid clues to support future punishment of drivers. The vehicles also carry an automatic car plate identification system. After shooting pictures of a vehicle, the computer will compare its plate number to its database containing reported stolen and illegal cars. The function is expected to assist police in catching hit-and-run drivers and illegal vehicles. All pictures taken are then stored on a computer disk and turned in to the police headquarters at the end of a shift.... Full story, from Xinhuanet.
Police in England are setting up a national network of more than 2,000 cameras on motorways and in city centres to track down suspects on the move. Computers linked to the cameras automatically read number plates, check them against national files and alert police if the driver is wanted or a suspect. Fines for traffic breaches such as driving without insurance or tax will be used to fund development of the system, chief constables said yesterday. Over the next three years the computer links, known as the automatic number-plate recognition system (ANPR), will be added to the cameras on gantries watching motorway traffic and main routes.1 Police are also going to add the links to closed-circuit systems operated by local authorities to monitor urban main roads. On the Dartford crossing over the Thames, for example, there will be 28 cameras and links watching every lane. Overall, police expect to have several thousand links by 2008. The computer links interrogate 12 different databases and alert police control rooms within seconds that a vehicle should be stopped or monitored. The system can check up to 3,000 number plates per hour, per lane, even at speeds of up to 100mph. The computer checks national data on whether a car is stolen, if the driver has insurance or paid motor tax, whether there is a warrant for his arrest or if detectives are interested in his movements. Source: The Times
1 The existing cameras are used to monitor traffic congestion.
Arrive Alive and the transport department have turned to technology to minimise road accidents this Easter. The campaign is set to cost the department R6.29 million [US $1.02 million]. Transport minister Jeff Radebe says road fatalities increased from 12,348 in 2003 to 12,709 last year. As part of this year's campaign, traffic police cars countrywide have been fitted with video cameras, tracking systems, breathalysers and scanners. These scanners will read the barcode on licence disks and drivers' licences and feed the information to the National Traffic Information System. The department has identified the 86 most hazardous sections of road countrywide, covering a combined distance of 10,730km. Eighty patrol cars have been set up to guard the traffic at these points, of which 18 will be shared between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.... Full story, from ITweb
MONTROSE - It began as a courtesy service to motorists when the automobile was largely a novelty. These days, the Colorado State Patrol still ranks courtesy as a priority, but its duties and responsibilities have expanded to meet the increased traffic flow and the laws governing driving.
The CSP, to put it simply, is in charge of enforcing all laws on
Colorado's highways and at extreme personal risk to the troopers who've
hit the road for a career.
and just to make the point regarding state troopers detecting felonies....
The Nebraska State Patrol seized $1 million worth of cocaine Thursday afternoon during a traffic stop on Interstate 80 near Grand Island.... The driver gave the trooper permission to search the vehicle. An NSP K-9's nose led to 45 pounds of cocaine packaged in 18 heat-wrapped cellophane packages in the vehicle's gas tank.... Full story, from WOWT
Police are defending using a $220 per hour airplane to spot dangerous drivers, despite only catching two drivers during the flight.... The tactic led to two drivers being fined $150 each for slow driving.... Tasman District Highway Patrol team leader Eric Davy defended the use of the plane, despite catching only two drivers for "impeding the flow of traffic". Holding traffic up by not allowing it to pass was an offence police regarded as seriously as speeding, he said. "It leads to people acting stupidly to get past them. They will overtake them when it's imprudent to do so, and that's why you have head-on crashes."... "You've got to look at the amount of money we spend on road traffic enforcement in relation to how many lives we save, and this is just one tool of ours ... It's part of police presence and it's part of a whole strategy in reducing road trauma."... Full story, from The New Zealand Herald
DSA Comments: Hmmmm... It is tempting to suggest that when the New Zealand police start telling journalists how to write articles, that is when journalists should tell the police how to do their job. If we examine the opposite extreme to the above scenario and hypothesize that the plane had stayed on the ground, and that during the relevant time period there had been a fatal crash, I suspect that the media would then have been screaming for police blood and demanding to know why more steps were not being taken to prevent fatalities. Journalistic dual standards. And little more than contemptible. Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc.
Two completely separate media reports within the past 24 hours, from the USA and Australia respectively, highlight the fact that speculation and inaccurate comments play an excessively large part in undermining road safety standards. First, from America, came a story about a man who died when his car ran off the road on a curve and overturned and police officers at the scene said the man had probably fallen asleep at the wheel.... The second story, from Australia, concerned the case of a well liked and respected lady who was killed when "her car failed to negotiate a curve and veered off the road and into [a] river." In both of these cases, one must ask: Oh, really?
Read the full article, by Eddie Wren, executive director of Drive and Stay Alive, Inc.
BEIJING, Mar. 8 -- On February 28, Shanghai furthered the restructure of its law enforcement provision with the separation of traffic and patrolling police.... Chen Fukuan, director of the political office of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, said traffic police will enforce the Road Traffic Security Law, reduce traffic jams and prevent traffic accidents whilst patrolling police will maintain security and crime prevention on the streets, though there would still be some flexibility and overlap where necessary.... At the same time, better-equipped patrol cars with GPS will be used.... Full story, from Xinhuanet
SACRAMENTO - On any given day in California, a television station helicopter hovers over a speeding car that pinballs through traffic on the freeway below with police cars in hot pursuit. More and more often, however, this staple of television news and police procedure has brought death and serious injuries. According to the California Highway Patrol, the number of chases has grown by the hundreds each of the last three years for which statistics are available: 5,895 in 2001; 6,337 in 2002; 7,171 in 2003. Fifty-one people died in 2003 as a result, or nearly one each week. Of the dead, 18 were not involved in the pursuit, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.... California's numbers consistently far exceed any other state. Compared to the 51 California deaths in 2003, Texas had 33, including nine innocents; North Carolina reported 23 deaths, eight of them uninvolved motorists; and Florida had 21 deaths, just one of an innocent motorist. While some cities including Los Angeles have limited chases, Florida and Mississippi last year enacted laws boosting penalties for fleeing drivers, similar to what California law enforcement is now proposing this year as the Legislature is set to start again attempts to change the way law enforcement pursue potential criminals. Law enforcement groups want to increase penalties for fleeing drivers, while a bipartisan group of legislators is pushing a proposal that would include penalties for police who recklessly pursue drivers.... Full story, from the Times-Herald
Two men apparently masquerading as police officers shot dead a traffic police officer after being flagged down for a document check in central Moscow, police said Thursday.... [After pursuing the SUV, that had failed to stop] Police Officer Dmitry Zhuchkov approached the driver, who was wearing a police uniform, [then] a passenger in a police uniform got out and shot him five times in the back, killing him on the spot, city prosecutor's office spokesman Sergei Marchenko said. Witnesses spotted a third man handcuffed inside the Mitsubishi, an indication that he may have been the owner of the car and the victim of a carjacking, Gazeta.ru reported.... Police spokesman Pavel Klimovsky said the city police usually received one or two reports per month of people impersonating police officers in attempts to scam people out of money.... Klimovsky said police uniforms have become increasingly easy to obtain, with a number of stores offering them for sale.... Full story, from The Moscow Times
[From a letter to the Daily News] ....taxis are now in the habit of stopping to load and offload passengers slap bang in the middle of traffic circles (i.e. rotaries or roundabouts). A more dangerous location could not be found if we tried. On two recent occasions I narrowly missed ploughing into the back of a taxi stopped in a traffic circle. More frustrating was seeing a "Metro Traffic Police" car pass by a taxi while it offloaded passengers in a traffic circle. Come on KZN police, what happened to your "zero tolerance for traffic offenders" slogan? [From] Concerned Derek, of Mt Edgecombe.
DSA Comments: We have two reasons for including this letter in the DSA news files. Firstly, as "Concerned Derek" states, it is annoying to see police officers neglect to do their job, especially where public safety is so clearly involved.. Secondly, we are using this as an opportunity to once again comment on an even worse situation, and that is where officers in marked police vehicles deliberately flout traffic laws with impunity, simply because they can. We are not referring to emergency situations where -- for example -- speed limits may need to be broken; we are referring to making illegal turns or crossing solid center lines or any other transgression that is not called for. People constantly refer to the "E's" of road safety -- primarily Engineering, Enforcement and Education -- but "Example" should be included, too, because if police drivers can't set an impeccable example then they cannot expect other drivers to maintain safe standards either. Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc.
SACRAMENTO – A steady increase in traffic accidents is straining the California Highway Patrol, the Legislature's watchdog said Monday, creating a vicious circle: Officers spend more time responding to crashes and less time trying to prevent them, so the number of accidents keeps increasing. Changing accident reporting policies and using more civilian employees would free more sworn officers for patrol duties, the legislative analyst's office recommended.... The analyst found the officers are handling 52,000 more accidents annually than they were a decade ago, with total crashes now topping 230,000 a year.... Full article here, from Sign-On San Diego
Highway patrol officers are stepping back on the road to flag down speeding drivers, despite a court ruling that the police action is "enormously risky". This follows a decision that police had breached health and safety rules when a highway patrol officer, Sergeant Mark Wayne Johnson, was hit by a car and badly injured during a radar blitz in May 2000. For two months after the ruling by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission last May police scaled back speed blitz operations by 90,000 as officers were ordered not to step onto the road when trying to flag down motorists. But yesterday the Traffic Services Commander, Chief Superintendent John Hartley, admitted that after two months police decided stepping onto the road was the only way to stop drivers. While some new procedures and training were introduced after the accident, traffic police cou |
December 7, 2005:
July
15, 2005: 
July
3, 2005: Russian Traffic Policemen Mark Their
Professional Holiday
May 28, 2005: 
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