Posted on 11/24/2005 8:20:18 PM PST by sickoflibs
To combat the high volume of speeders through residential areas, Howard County police are sharing some of the responsibility for identifying those speeders with the people they believe know those areas best: the residents. Through the department's Speed Monitoring and Radar Team (SMART) program, citizens are getting the opportunity to wield radar guns and record tag numbers in an effort to slow speeders and make their neighborhoods safer.
Howard County police officials began the program in 1998, after seeing the success of the SMART program in Montgomery County.
Community action "It is a community response to a community program so that they can address the problem before the police are involved," said Howard County police Officer Brandon Justice who taught the program two years ago. According to an analysis released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in June, 32 percent of all traffic-related fatalities were caused by speeding, and fatalities on local roads and in rural communities have significantly increased.
The purpose of the SMART program "is to use peer pressure to solve the problem," Justice said. "If you are driving down the road and you see your neighbor holding a [radar] unit you are less likely to go over the speed limit."
Justice said that participating residents stand near speed-limit signs with the radar guns.
"It takes about an hour and a half to learn how to use the radar unit," Justice said. "We have set classes where people can come and learn how to use it and what they should do."
Letters written Participants turn in tag numbers of speeders to police, who write letters to car owners alerting them to the violation
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Typical police state tactics getting neighbors to turn on their own neighbors to do the police work for them .Over such stupid thing as speeding. If speed is a factor in an accident then ok fine the guilty person. But most speed laws are just to hastle motorists and get money. If people can drive safely at 70 mph.Then they should be allowed to.
" Typical police state tactics getting neighbors to turn on their own neighbors to do the police work for them ."
Perhaps next we can get children to turn their parents in... :(
I have found except for 29 and 40 during rush hour, traffic moves very smartly in Howard County. No complaints here.
Yep, those are the two!
Howard County has a lot of police. Notice to anyone traveling through HC, don't think about speeding. Oh, they have plenty of red light cameras too. The police are particularly present on route 100, and route 29.
My thoughts exactly . . .
It won't be long before the FR statists are singing their predictable "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear!" song. I swear some conservative folks simply love the taste of bootpolish.
~ Blue Jays ~
In my opinion, it's the idiots "stuck on left" that go slow in the fast lane and let people pile up behind about 10 cars+ sometimes mile or so and are oblivious that should be ticketed. And i don't think neigbors should be snitching unless its a methlab, abuse or something really bad is going on in the neighborhood, then call 'Ghost busters' to deal with it. :)
Yep. The cops patrol rts 100, 40 and 29 but ignore the back roads, because there are too many. So to avoid cops and traffic jams we hit the back roads as this article suggests. HC police also bought night vision goggles to get those not wearing seat belts at night and speeding cameras to give out warnings. Red light camera's are obvious on big polls, but the digital ones don't flash. HC just keeps on raising our taxes to pay for more and more stuff like this.
would you like to be on the dcchapter ping list ?
dcchapter is really a Baltimore Washington chapter
also, Ehrlich and Steele races will be hot items for 2006 and we could use your help.
This wreaks of the "block captain" mentality of communism and "la vigilancia," ( The Vigilance ) of Cuba.
Howard County is probably the most major speed trap on the east coast. Avoid doing any sort of business there and always have your radar detector turned on when driving through the place on I95.
Sounds good
"And i don't think neigbors should be snitching unless its a methlab, abuse or something really bad is going on in the neighborhood, then call 'Ghost busters' to deal with it. :)"
A methlab poses far less of a threat to my personal safety and freedom of movement than a**hole drivers do.
"any idiot speeding through a residential area should be considered fair game, with no bag limits."
LMAO
"HC just keeps on raising our taxes to pay for more and more stuff like this."
Too funny. Hmmm, perhaps if you didn't speed through residential areas..........
When you think about it, this is kinda ingenious. It takes radar guns (granted, probably only old X-band that couldn't be used for profitable enforcement anyway) out of the hands of cops. It gives the local busybodies something to do "for the chillllldrun," and gets them off the backs of local officials, who no longer need to placate their whining with actual ticket-writing police. And the wannabe-cops can't issue actual tickets, so the motorists only get easily disposable warnings and don't have to waste a day in court. Sounds like a win-win for all involved.
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