Howard Co (MD) Police are completely out of control

[bren]

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

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.

[ZBB]

Man... I'm glad I live in AZ.

While we have to put up with photo-radar on surface streets and on one freeway (coming soon to more...), at least we have what I consider a very good rule:

Only the an AZ Dept of Public Safety (ie the Highway Patrol) can pull over somone on a State or Federal highway (ie Interstates, state freeways, or US Highways). City or County officers cannot patrol those roads -- they can only do surface streets or county highways. And County Sheriffs can only patrol in unincorporated areas unless a municipality contracts with the Sheriff to be their police force -- which means you can't have 2 authorities pulling you over in the same municipality.

In addition, they can only pull you over for exceeding the limit by more than 10 MPH (state law -- even the photo-radar machines must be set to trigger at 11 MPH over).

On top of that, we generally have reasonable limits here: rural interstates are 75MPH, rural highways are 65MPH, Freeways are 65MPH in most parts, 55MPH downtown where its frequently congested, etc.

[John V]

Originally Posted by ZBB

On top of that, we generally have reasonable limits here: rural interstates are 75MPH, rural highways are 65MPH, Freeways are 65MPH in most parts, 55MPH downtown where its frequently congested, etc.

US-29 is a bit weird where TD saw the speed trap. A bit south of the road with the cherry-picker-positioned-trooper, the road turns from a limited access highway to a more traditional US highway with at-grade crossings, traffic lights, and more non-vehicular traffic. So a 55MPH limit is not unreasonable, though I usually find myself doing 65 on that stretch of road on the rare occasion that I'm forced to drive it.

And to be entirely fair, I've whizzed by the speed traps at 65MPH and not gotten a look from the police. I think they're typically looking for the gross offenders - the people doing 15-25over.

It's still ridiculous.

[John V]

It would not be safe for anyone to be going 99MPH on US 29, at least not in the area TD is talking about. I would certainly hope they'd hand out a ticket for that. I highly doubt your MIL is going that fast on that stretch of road.

On the other hand, I've cruised at 90MPH on I-95 (which is rarely patrolled between the Beltway and HoCo MD, and when it is, it's in obvious locations).

[TD]

Originally Posted by John V

It would not be safe for anyone to be going 99MPH on US 29, at least not in the area TD is talking about. I would certainly hope they'd hand out a ticket for that. I highly doubt your MIL is going that fast on that stretch of road.

On the other hand, I've cruised at 90MPH on I-95 (which is rarely patrolled between the Beltway and HoCo MD, and when it is, it's in obvious locations).

Depends on the time of day.

[John V]

Originally Posted by TD

Depends on the time of day.

That's true. When I find myself on I-95 it's usually 3PM-5PMish and 9-10PM and I never see police.

My point was there are no areas around here which are like Stuka's middle-of-nowhere freeway to the racetrack.

[TD]

Originally Posted by John V

That's true. When I find myself on I-95 it's usually 3PM-5PMish and 9-10PM and I never see police.

My point was there are no areas around here which are like Stuka's middle-of-nowhere freeway to the racetrack.

When I head home late from Columbia, that same southbound stretch of 29 will be empty. And the car somehow always finds itself going 100+ before I realize it.

[TD]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/loc...l-local-howard

[JST]

Originally Posted by TD

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/loc...l-local-howard

Heard about that on the news today. Insane that they put officers in that position just to raise revenue.

[blee]

Originally Posted by stuka

Insane that the population of MD has not revolted to this level of draconian speed enforcement.

Originally Posted by stuka

But no one ever does because no one ever fight their speeding tickets.