Speed signs are great ideas

[Mitzi]

Well, I can't sleep so I will ramble on and bore all of you. lol I was proud of myself today. I had to go to the dr and was going a back road where the speed limit is 25 mph in a residential zone. They had one of those big signs up that shows you how fast you are going and I was going the exact speed limit! Aren't you proud of me?
I think those things were a really good idea. I know a few times I've come up on one and was over the speed limit, not by much, but still over.
Also, the other great idea they do here and I'm sure elsewhere is parking cruisers not being used that day in sight in busy areas. Sometimes, they put dummies in there (no, not you guys...lol), sometimes they don't. But it sure is an effective way of getting people to slow down.

[klar]

Some times those speed signs are good but in other instances they can be dangerous. I have seen some kids see just how fast they can get going by such a sign in a residential area. The parked squads is another nice way to get people to slow down especially if it is not manned for a few days then the next day it is. You will be surprised at the tickets you can write there. LOL

Klar

[Mitzi]

Wow, I never thought about kids maybe doing that when they see speed signs. And the parked cars are great. You see it for a few days then one day you see it, with several other cruisers writng out one ticket after another.
I think the parked cars ideas are great. Like you say, they never know when it will be really manned. And if you grow oblivious to seeing it there day after day, you go back to old habits.....speeding on the day it IS manned.
I'm always careful when I travel residential areas anyway. Speed limits are always low there and there are kids to think of. Nothing makes me madder then if someone passes me fast in a residential zone. There is no reason for it and it always startles me when a car flys past me in an area of families and kids.

[Evnings]

I think that they are a waste of money, at least in the city I work for. Ours is equiped to gather traffic data in addition to telling passing motorists how fast they are going.

Ours hasn't been used to gather traffic data once since we had it, and if I'm not mistaken, it was our Engineering Department that wanted the Police Department to buy it with Police Department money.

People will intentionally go by them at warp speed just to see what warp speed looks like in bright red numbers.

Then there is the pain of setting it up and taking it down. It never fails that the person who sets it up forgets to tell the relief shift that it is up and it needs to be picked up later in the shift. This has caused it to be left out in less than nice neighborhoods overnight. This caused it to be vandalized. It's always a pain to pick it up, because the time to pick it up is either at dinner time or when your'e so busy you cann't see straight.

Got to hand it to Kustom Signals though, they came up with a great idea to fleece the cities. These things aren't cheap.

[ 05-22-2002: Message edited by: Evnings ]

[Don]

Originally posted by Mitzi:
Also, the other great idea they do here and I'm sure elsewhere is parking cruisers not being used that day in sight in busy areas.

Ohhhh yeah, it's a GREAT idea. Back many years ago one of the towns in the county I worked in started doing this. Interestingly enough, their cars started turning up in towns as far as 25 miles away. They had the cars "fleet keyed" so some wise *** officers on their department decided it would be funny. . .

[Evnings]

Ditto my above post, except take out the Kustom Signals remark and the part about Engineering wanting us to do it.

Been there, done that, all I got was a lousy t-shirt.

[Mitzi]

After I read evenings post about the speed signs being so expensive and hard to set up, I realized something. I have seen the speed signs but not very often. Now I know why.

[Joseph]

In Kenner.Louisiana a surburb of New Orleans they do that. All the cars we have in New Orleans they try to keep running. The only way we could do that is tow them out there from motor maintenence. Everything else that runs is on the street. I remember when I first got on riding with a blanket. A heater was a luxury.

[Mark A. Smith]

My PD has 13 MPH Industries RADAR trailers. The first one we got about 4 years ago. It was paid for by a State Traffice Grant and many PD's across NC got one. Ours has a nice computer in it that keeps track of all the stats. You can take the "black box" out or just the card and upload the data to the computer. It's not that dfficult and the info is most helpful.

Sure, you get the ocassional teenager (or POLICE OFFICER!!!) trying to see if they can make the sign read triple digits but the stats are usually accurate.

We typically use the RADAR trailers in areas with numerous speeding complaints. Whether it be on an interstate, a main road or in a neighborhood the data is great. You can set to start and stop "recording" data at particular days and times instead of always on. It has twin 12-volt batteries that run it plus a solar trickle charger. Theoretically, you could leave it out for days and it would continue to run, day and night. We don't leave ours out for fear that they might be vandalized. The MPH unit has a removabe trailer hitch tongue and a locking bar that goes between the wheels plus an ALARM. If you set it up right, it won't go anywhere. Now, I have seen some with dents. Can you say, how fast is that fast ball??

I realy enjoyed passing out a sheet of stats with colorful graphs at neighborhood meetings. We all know how the Citizen calls in saying that people are going 90 MPH through his neighborhood. It's great to show him what the actual average, top and minimum speeds, really are. It puts them in their place. Next time they complain, you put the trailer out again. It's not like you're wasting the time of an officer out there for a shift. It takes a few minutes to haul it to the site but only takes about 10 minutes to set it up, speed limit sign on top and everything!

I always prefer to follow up after the trailer has been at a site with a slick-top or unmarked. Re-emphasizing the point. One neighborhood complaint I worked on we actually used a pickup truck, set cones around it and while I was running RADAR, the chase cars were tearing them UP!! It's all a game unitl someone gets hurt or killed. Then it's a huge problem. When it's my problem I love to be able to show that we're taking the complaint seriously and that we are doing something about it.

If your PD does not have a RADAR trailer, try asking around to see if there is State grant money available. Ours run about $10K each but if you get a grant or donations from the wealthy, you can make it work. It's a nice tool to have.

Did I mention that you have to have at least 1 car with a trailer hitch so you can tow the thing? We have at least 2 cars per district with a removable hitch. That way if one's in the shop or tied up you can still put it out and pick it up.

As for decoy cars, they WORK! We used to put School Resource Officer cars that are only used during school hours at convenience stores over night. It helped reduce our armed robberies. The perp would wonder, "Is he in there or is the car just parked there?"

Food for thought...

Mark

[chris18200]

i know when I was kids me and my friends used to get on our bikes and peddle as fast as we could to see which one could get the fastest. And also whe I was driving before I was coming up on one and some kid on a dirtbike come roaring beside me and passed me and he was going nearly 80mph. Actually that happened a week ago.

[wonderwoman]

We have them on the tight corners of highways every now and then. You never realize how dang slow 70kls are when you been going 120!