User Panel
Posted: 4/15/2007 4:01:59 PM EDT
www.thenewspaper.com/news/17/1702.asp 4/15/2007 Kansas: Big Rigs Equipped with Ticket Cameras Federal gas tax money used to hide Kansas state troopers in big rig trucks so they can issue tickets to motorists. The Kansas Highway Patrol last week began spying on motorists from privately owned big rig trucks. As part of a new, federally funded effort, a state trooper sits in the passenger seat of each truck and operates a set of five video cameras and a radar gun to identify motorists to ticket. The trooper will then contact a patrol car hidden nearby to issue the citation. The program is expected to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in ticket revenue over the next six weeks. "I want to thank industry and governmental partners that have agreed to work with the Patrol on this important program," Kansas Highway Patrol Superintendent William R. Seck said in a statement. Yellow Transportation, a Wichita company, provided trucks for the most recent operation at no cost to the state. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is funding the Kansas ticketing program, this month rewarded the cooperative company with its "highest safety rating" -- a valuable endorsement of Yellow's practices. In 2005, the federal agency similarly spent $600,000 in federal gas tax money to fund a ticketing program in Washington state. |
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Hmmmm, using taxes to fund the collection of even more taxes.
It's all about the revenue. |
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Bingo. |
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I wonder how many illegals and drug dealers are running around Kansas. Dont those cops have anything better to do
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Does this mean the big rigs won't be speeding? I don't know about Kansas but many of them here seldom get below 80 on the Interstates.
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I wonder what the owner of the company got threatened with to let them do this
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Cops get paid to collect revenue from the middle and lower class folks just like in the medieval days. Anytime you think different, look at the crime in inner cities and look at whats being done about it. Zip.
They will say that they catch lots of bad guys in cars or speed kills, but the truth hurts. The bad guys are where anyone can see them on the street corners peddling dope and the Autoban in Europe is a testament to unlimited speed. Its all bullshit. |
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We did that at my last job, the cops that participated were amazed at what actually goes on around big rigs.
It's a damn good program that actually gets some results. |
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I suppose they should just pull over the vehicles labeled "Drug dealer" or "illegal?" |
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Thankfully they can't do that in Ga per state law. Or at least thats my understanding.
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BS, speed yes, over 80 is a total exaggeration. Trucks caught exceeding the general speed of traffic get tickets and over 80 would be reckless driving which would cost em a job at any company I've worked for. Truckers that get more than a few tickets lose their jobs and have a hard time finding new jobs. it's not like it was back in the good old days, it's almost impossible to hide driving records now unless you're an illegal alien. |
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Results.........Like filling the tax coffers ? |
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Sure... that would be the '78' Cutlass riding on $4800 rims, or the pick-up truck loaded with 6 "migrant workers". Need an excuse? swerving... "matched a description of a suspect at large", etc. Is it fundamentally fair? Does anybody but the ACLU and "The Reverend" give a shit? If the government is going to be unethical in its practices, why not direct it at the unethical, instead of those who subsidize it with their legally-earned income? |
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Oh boo freaking hoo.
That's not fair the policeman hid, you know that these fine upstanding drivers wouldn't do it if they knew the LEOS were there. How about they drive like the LEOs were there and then they wouldn't have these problems. Whines posted earlier in the thread by the "I would break the law if I thought I could get away with it" Lobby. |
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Man i need to move there! All of the child molesters, rapists, murderers, burglars, robbers, and gangs are all locked up!
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Well as long as they don't lie about it and just admit what they are really doing.....lining Boss Hogg's pockets. |
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Nawwwww, they're still out there it's just that they don't generate revenue. |
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Wow... Have any room in the garage? I have this clue I'd like you to have. It's not about cops "doing their job" that offends (most) people here. It's the extremes these agencies will pursue on a lucerative enterprise while we have very real problems (immigration, etc) these LEOs won't lift a finger to do shit about (until they have festered into a real problem and they are called to pick up the body, etc). If half that effort was expended on illegals we wouldn't be in the predicament we're in now. |
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hmmmm me thinks they have just a wee bit too much money pretty fricking sad really. |
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When are we going to hollow that state out and turn it into a national landfill?
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Haven't had a ticket is 10-12 years, I just think it's BS that money is wasted on schemes like this when there are other MUCH more serious problems plaguing society. Serious CRIMES don't normally happen on the highway, they happen in housing areas and the like. I don't know how many murders they are going to prevent doing this but I can guess it'll be very few. However, they will take in money rather then spending it solving crimes and making their presence know in area's known for criminal activity. |
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The jurisdiction of the Highway Patrol is, well, the highways. MANY cases are solved and criminals caught becuase they are pulled over on the highways. Virtually all narcotics traffic has to cross the roadways. Tim McVeigh was caught by the Oklahoma State Police on the highways. |
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So the police should ignore traffic concerns until all other crime is eliminated? Far more people die in traffic accidents than are killed in other crimes. |
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Results like targeting the people that actually make driving dangerous, when I was there they were going after the idiots that tail gate, pass dangerously, pass and then dive right in fron t of tha truck, cut off trucks to make exits at the last second, you know, the stupidity we put up with every day but nobody ever sees for some reason. Like I said, the cops were amazed at what they saw from the cab of a truck. |
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I would be fighting that ticket all the way. The officer who saw the vilolation has to write the ticket not other officer.
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No, they should hang out where the drug dealers are in town. Even I know where they are in my town. |
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+1, I live near Wichita and can tell you as a fact that if the local LEO wanted to find illegals they would have absolutely no problem in doing so. The construction in the area is in full swing right now on both the east and west extremes of the city. I would estimate at least half of the laborers involved are hispanic, and at least three quarters of that are here illegally, but, as is the case around the rest of the country, they simply look the other way while trying to devise new ways to catch speeders. If all LE problems with the exception of speeding where solved in KS, maybe they would be more justified in this program. But as has been mentioned, they should have much bigger fish to fry than trying to catch Joe Blow going eight over on his way to work. Yes I believe traffic laws should be enforced, but it seems like the LEO's are going to extremes to catch usually very minor infractions, while illegals are invading the local economy and schools. |
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We have this same type of crap going on in MI too. I live outside one of the most dangerous cities in the country. last month they rented a helicopter for the police to use over a weekend, they used it to chase speeders on the highway There were 3 shootings the same weekend, one of them was a 1 year old killed while riding in her parents car. None of these shootings has even generated an arrest.
Like was said above, real criminals going to jail doesn't generate revenue. |
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I have been pulled over in Kansas going 10 over in a freakin' construction zone, no less. I got a warning. It was clear to me that once I checked out as a normal guy, the cop had no intent of ticketing me or keeping me there any longer.
I don't understand the paranoia. Of course they are patrolling the Highways, and not the cities - they are the HIGHWAY patrol. Also, there are more than enough lunatic drivers to keep them busy - the idea that they would harass Joe Blow going less than 10 over is just hard for me to grasp. The traffic violation DOES, though, give them a chance to observe other things - and a LARGE number of serious criminal have a hard time driving normally. |
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Internet access in cars is only a couple of years away. If you're resourceful you could have it now.
I don't imagine it will take too long until there are real-time updated web sites that give the location of things like this, along with stationary speed traps, DUI/license checkpoints, and whatever. Be interesting to see what the next step will be in the "arms race" |
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+1 |
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When the acquisition of more money is the goal, that is understandable. |
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There's no money to be made in blood. |
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Guess I'll tag this to send out at work tomorrow.
(Love living in the state where all of the other problems a LEO could face have been solved, so we can devote more officer time to the revenue-generating minor infractions.) |
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You have obviously never traveled the interstate highways in my state, I drove 100 miles a day on I-40 for 20 years, I am very aware of how they drive, and I did say "many" not all. |
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I drive I-35 every day. There are many big rigs doing 80 or more every trip. Assuming the story is true, I suggest that we no longer go out of our way to be nice to Yellow truck drivers on the road in KS. |
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The Kansas Highway Patrol officers are the most professional, honorable group of law enforcement officers I have ever encountered. That's been true when I had a flat tire, when I had a speeding ticket, and when I've seen them in non-business encounters. I'm sure this is shit rolling downhill onto them, just like the Yellow truck drivers. I've said for years that if I had a real, pressing NEED for a LEO, I would be most confident in the KHP. Their officers are outstanding people. Jim |
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Can you cite the statute that states that? It's been common for years to have one officer with radar/vascar/airborn and a radio, and another officer (or twelve) in pursuit cars. |
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Eat it mountain boy! Although when driving through western KS on the way to Denver I did wonder how we lost out to Nevada for all those lucrative missile testing contracts. BTW I got pulled over when I was younger due to a trooper riding in a school bus. I didn't pass illegally or speed but was verbally warned for passing anyway? |
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It is all about the $$$. Especially in KS. I drive CO, KS, MO, IA, OH, KY, PA, NJ often, and KS is the worst of them all. Even at 3 am on a deserted 100 mile laser straight stretch of I-70, there will be a uniformed highwayman available to collect your toll if you go more than 10 mph over. They literally have nothing better to do than to milk the big fat cash cow that bisects their State. Meanwhile, don't get lost in Kansas City or stop for gas, for there are some bad honchos there who likewise prey upon the middle class.
Parasites at every turn. |
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Proposals to keep drivers off the internet while driving. Cellphones are bad enough, watching porn while driving will be worse. |
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I've been through Oklahoma a couple times on I40, I forgot you have a 75 mph speed limit, I could see trucks maintaining 5mph over the speed limit so I do owe you an apology. I've been driving for 17 years and average between 100,000 and 150,000 miles a year and there's no way I'd be comfortable traveling over 80 in a loaded truck, that's just stupid. |
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You may be right in Washington, but you're wrong when it comes to Oklahoma. Turnpike speeds are 75mph, and that includes semis. We don't have split speed limits or any of that other blue state bullshit. I've gone 80mph in my Pete on the Turner Turnpike damned near every day for four years, and the OHP doesn't even give me a second look. |
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Yep, that's why in the post just above yours I apologised |
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It's always fun to jump over to GD every once in a while just to make sure it hasn't changed. It hasn't.
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All those problems can be solved with one little issue. Ticket idiots in the left lane who are impeding traffic flow. TXL |
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