Westerville Police Using Plane To Catch Speeders

[The Straight Story]

Westerville Police Using Plane To Catch Speeders

WESTERVILLE, Ohio — A new set of eyes in the sky will soon be helping police catch speeding drivers.

Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer said the city is targeting drivers speeding along Polaris Parkway, 10TV's Maureen Kocot reported.

A plane took off from The Ohio State University Airport and was scheduled to fly over Westerville for several hours Monday night, Kocot reported.

Morbitzer said the plane will fly over Polaris Parkway and using special pavement markers, be able to track how fast drivers are traveling.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2010/06/21/story-columbus-polaris-speeders.html?sid=102

Wonder how much it costs to keep that plane up? How much is it for each run, and do they have to catch X number to break even?

[backscatter712]

1. Nabbing speeders by airplane is nothing new.

They do it all the time in Colorado - you drive down a highway, drive past a pair of white lines painted on the highway.

The cop in the Cessna up above times you with a stopwatch as you pass those white lines, looks up your speed on a table, radios the state trooper waiting a mile or two down the road, who flags you down and writes you a ticket.

[liberal N proud]

2. Many state patrols use them

[The Straight Story]

3. I am sure they do (seen them myself before), but how cost effective is it? (nt)

[Tempest]

4. Not very

Citing cost, Virginia ends aerial speed patrols
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/10/citing-cost-virginia-ends-aerial-speed-patrols

Tickets written from airplane or helicopter surveillance are easy to beat unless there's a car radar to go with the surveillance. In my town there are two law firms who specialize in those kinds of tickets and one of them has an almost 100% success rate in fighting them.

[LanternWaste]

5. Should enforcement of the law be predicated on cost-effectiveness? n/t

Should enforcement of the law be predicated on cost-effectiveness?

[The Straight Story]

10. Well, let's see:

Pilot, loads of gas for plane (thing Environment), all to catch a few people going over the speed limit - versus a cop sitting in a car that is not running on the freeway, which people will see and come to expect and thus slow down, versus a plane they don't see and only catch a few speeders.

Which do you think is going to reduce speeding (which we are told is the problem)?

One will catch the occasional speeder, one will cause many more to slow down in that area. Is the goal to reduce speeding? If so then planes are not going to do so and will cost more.

[PacerLJ35]

11. Here are some answers...

The pilot is likely a police officer, and gets paid the same as a standard patrol officer. I know friends who fly for police departments and although they were hired with flying certificates, they had to serve as a patrol officer for a certain time before they could fly. Even then, they got paid the same as everyone else. The labor costs are the same.

Most police departments that use airplanes generally operate light aircraft such as a Cessna 172, which burns about 6-8 gallons per hour depending on phase of flight. While it's not quite as fuel efficient as a Honda, it's not necessarily burning "loads" of gas.

Cops that sit on the highway generally have their vehicles idling, so if they do spot a speeder, they can respond quickly. Plus most people don't want to sit on the side of the road and either freeze or sweat to death (think heat/AC).

Airplanes can catch more than a few speeders...they can catch more speeders than a cop sitting on the side of the road if done right. And a cop on the side of the road only reduces speeding within that short segment of road...I'm quite sure most people who slow down for a police officer will speed up as soon as they get to a safe distance on the other side.

[doc03]

6. Why the heck are they going to all this trouble? The Ohio

Supreme Court ordered a few days ago that a COP can now arrest you if you look like you are going fast. You are in deep du du if you look Mexican and look like you are going to fast.

[Swamp Rat]

7. a waste of taxpayer dollars. eom

[Ikonoklast]

8. Yes.

If they have a problem catching speeders tearing around Columbus and need an airplane to do so, they are doing it wrong.

A dedicated squad of traffic patrol cars cruising that stretch of road would do more to slow traffic down, if that's the actual end result desired...instead of generating revenue.

[obxhead]

9. I've witnessed this on I-495 in VA myself. 2 small single engine

prop planes flying tandem in a tight figure 8 over the highway. Both break down lanes had well over 100 police cars lined up waiting for their target to be called down to them. The one time I witnessed the event it caused more chaos and danger on the highway than any of the speeders were causing imo. As far as I know they just did a huge 10 minutes sting for each officer to get one ticket then it was all over for the day as a following coworker didn't see any of it 45 minutes later. Not sure how effective they claim it is, but I do know from the fellow coworker that left 45 minutes after I did that it caused a good 2 mile backup quite well.

It's based on the old VASCAR system of speed checking.

So, if you just learn where the lines are you can easily avoid a ticket. If you see a plane flying a tight figure 8, slow down. If you do get a ticket a lawyer can usually get it reduced as VASCAR is not nearly as accurate as RADAR or LIDAR.