Howard Co (MD) Police are completely out of control
 

(And, no, I didn't get a ticket.)

This morning headed northbound on US 29 toward Columbia (a 6-lane divided, limited-access highway for those not familiar) I see this one HoCo officer running speed in a place where this same officer (a heavy-set black man) often runs speed. This stretch of Rt 29 in a series of hills and valleys. This officer was set up at the top of one of these hills targeting southbound traffic. And he's doing so in a way I find offensive - trunk lid up obscuring the lightbar sitting along the shoulder.

So far, pretty normal. And I'm glad I'm heading northbound rather than southbound into his target zone. Then I get to the top of the next hill.

On the left shoulder of the southbound lanes are two Maryland State Highway Admin vehicles. First a van with flashing orange lights with a flashing arrow sign mounted to the roof. In front of it was a large "cherry-picker", again with flashing orange lights, with it's basket extended straight up. This is all positioned right behind a bridge abutment so as to partially obscure the setup from oncoming drivers. State highway workers (who probably drove the vehicles to the site) were standing around.

And up in the cherry picker basket is another Howard County officer holding binoculars and a radio, looking for targets across the next valley/hill. No radar or laser from him, so no advance warning possible.

But at least 3 highway workers and two highway department vehicles were employed in this two officer speedtrap.

I swear. I wish Howard County would just f**king raise their damn property taxes to fund their operations and leave motorists alone. This type of bullshit revenue enhancement exercise should outrage everyone.

That's fucking ridiculous.

That's absurd.

Start writing a letter.

Once you factor in the cost to use and operate the special vehicles, and the cop cars, and to pay officer salaries, it's hard to believe they're making enough money from speeding tickets to break even.

Wouldn't it be better to station an officer with a speed gun in the woods somewhere, or behind a bridge support, and radio ahead to a waiting fleet of cruisers?

FYI, the cherry picker was hiding behind the bridge for Rt 216. The cop was up on the next hill, right before the bend leading down to the Patuxent.

Typically what they do is position 4-8 cop cars along the side of the road. One guy stands at the trunk of the last car in the row, trunk up, aiming a laser gun at oncoming traffic. Then another cop walks out into traffic (yes, on a highway with a 55MPH speed limit) and physically stands in the lane pointing to drivers to pull over. Then the fatass cops in the remaining cars get out and write tickets, batch-style.

TD, thanks for the update, but it's for this exact reason that I do not travel on US-29, EVER.

I really do think this deserves a letter, but I would have no idea where to send it.

What I hate is when all the traffic is doing 75, and they cherry pick someone out and give them a ticket.

There are drivers who are truly a danger and need to get tickets. Weaving in and out, tailgating like crazy, etc. If what they are doing is an attempt to ticket the people who deserve it most (rather than someone driving fast but safely), then I don't mind what they're trying to accomplish. If you are going to give 100 tickets, you might as well give them to the 100 biggest assholes.

Their way of achieving it seems a bit odd though. :ack: Also, they may be on the hunt for people with radar detectors. If they see you speeding in the distance, the guy might pull you over and give you a ticket regardless of what the gun said.

Can't we get something going that shows that speed limits are BS and what causes the problem is bad drivers and get this on the news and ideally all the way up to 20/20?

Nevermind, the audience would be the perpetrators.

Maybe we are better off talking/writing letters to Discovery Channel/TLC/Nat. Geographic and have them do a documentary.

That exact thing happened to me two weeks ago. I was doing 80 in a 65 just following traffic and I got picked out of the crowd.

I normally always see the cop cars but never the bikes. I have not gotten a ticket in over three years so I am safe with traffic school, but still I know exactly what you mean.

I almost felt like saying, "So what made me different then the other 10 people next to me on the freeway doing the same exact speed!" Really really dumb.

Cops routinely use cherry pickers on RT50 heading into OC MD on holiday weekends. They look as if they are maintaining billboards.

A women I work with was pulled over by a cop who stood in the highway. She yelled at him for scaring the crap out of her when he jumped into her path and he let her go :lol:

There was an article in Car&Driver a month or so ago about Ohio highway patrol officers in airplanes. They actually made it sound more "fair" in that they would watch driving habits for a few miles before deciding who to pull over.