OK, recently, I got into a debate with NCbozocop.  I will put a question to everyone to settle it.  Each states highway patrol falls under that states department of safety.  NCbozocop stated one of his supervisors would sit in an old unmarked pickup shooting (radar/lazer) trucks coming down the hill and the trucking companies "paid off" the politicians to put an end to it.  He claimed that they were doing it because there were too many truck accidents at the bottom of this hill.  

Now, my question is this.  If the purpose is truly safety, would they not put a marked car there to cause people to slow down.  Putting an unmarked vehicle in this location serves no purpose other than generating tax revenue for that locality/state.  If you wanted to slow traffic down, you would make it known that you were there.  If you want to generate revenue, you would hide and ambush people.  So, I say that NCbozocop and his buddy are interested [b]ONLY IN GENERATING REVENUE [/B] and claiming that it is for "safety"  

Oh yeah, NCbozocop, I will be coming through there tommorrow evening.  So, when a big white International 9400 comes by blowing his air horn and flipping you off.  That is me!!

If you want to slow down / shape the traffic, have a marked car or two driving the area at the speed limit.

If you want to generate revenue, set up ambushes in unmarked vehicles.

I agree with your position.

Well, DPeacher has it right.  

I don't want to sound as if I am bashing all cops, CVE, Highway patrol or anything, but I have to deal with a lot of them on a regular basis because I drive a truck.  Unfortunately, there are too many that think that a badge makes them god.  They really love it when I tell them that they can't do something.  "No officer, you are not authorized to check my log book and I will not give it to you."  or "Sure officer, you can look at my logs, but I provide them under duress and you can therefor not use any information contained therein to issue a citation as that would be a violation of my 5th ammendment rights."  And my favorite, "I am sorry officer, but pulling me over for a random inspection is illegal in that it is 1.  unreasonable search and seizure, 2.  unlawful detention, and 3.  a felony in that it is interfering with lawful interstate commerce.  So, may I go, or do I call the U.S. Marshalls office and file civil and criminal charges against you?"  (7th circuit court in case V. State of California)

Sorry, but your theory is wrong.

A "marked car" causes people to slow down.  But only when the car is present.

But an unmarked car, and the word getting out that there are unmarked cars running radar, will result on cars slowing down at all times, even if the car isn't there.

And personally, I don't mind the unmarked cars.  I drive the speed limit.  Try it.  It takes a lot of stress out of driving.

Well, I disagree.  A marked car shows a police presence.  An unmarked car is for taxation of non locals.  When "the word gets around" it is to locals, not people that are not around the area all the time.  Also, the reason I started this string was because NCbozocops division had an unmarked vehicle sitting on a downhill grade solely for the purpose of ticketing trucks.  I will give a little explanation of the area.  It is a 5% grade about 2 miles long followed immediately by a steep uphill grade.  Trucks will "let it roll" near the bottom of a hill like this in order to better be able to climb the next.  The reason has to do with simple physics.  You have a 2000# car with 200 horse power and 185 ft pounds of torque.  We drive trucks  with up to 80,000# weight, 500 HP (mine is 425) and 1500 ft pouunds of torque.  Your power to weight ratio is much greater than ours, so we have a hard time climbing a hill loaded.  Some JBT's love to take advantage of that.  

Oh yeah, I am still waiting for a response from NCBozocop

i speed when i don't see cops. i don't speed when i see cops.

also, word would "get out" just as much if there were regularly a marked car patrolling the area and giving out tickets.

I think ANYTIME an officer pulls off to the side of the road and turns the radar/laser gun on it's to generate revenue. In fact the Governor of VA, Mark Warner (D) publicly announced that VA Police would be writing more tickets for traffic violations in order to counter the states budget shortfall.