Town Uses Police Decoys to Slow Traffic

[Kadie]

Feb 16, 3:20 PM EST

Town Uses Police Decoys to Slow Traffic

By BILL KACZOR
Associated Press Writer

GULF BREEZE, Fla. (AP) -- To slow traffic and deter reckless driving, a Pensacola suburb is putting homemakers, business people and retirees behind the wheel of police cars to serve as decoys.

The volunteers can't write tickets or make arrests, but the program, begun last week with 10 volunteers, lets police increase visibility without expanding the 19-member department.

Gulf Breeze, a city of 6,000, saw a 30 percent increase in crashes during 2003, Police Chief Peter Paulding said Wednesday. He cited aggressive driving as the leading cause of accidents.

Volunteer Pat Reynolds said seeing police cars driving at the speed limit slows down lead-footed drivers who hit the brakes when they see a police car.

more...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/POLICE_DECOYS?SITE=CASTO&SECTION=US

Hey, now there is a way to save some money.

[brainshrub]

1. For once, a sneaky way to enforce the law I can agree with.

[Ezlivin]

2. Will it slow the extraterrestrial visitors?

Gulf Breeze has a big problem with UFOs: http://www.envasion.net/2002/gulfbreeze.html

Why don't they park a few UFO decoys in the sky? Perhaps that would work better.

[BR_Parkway]

3. Someone's gonna hit the siren behind some old guy just to mess with him

the old guy is gonna have a heart attack or something - that town is gonna get sued into bankruptcy. Or even if they just wreck the police car.

Just park the cars along the side of the road like some other areas do, by the time you're close enough to realize that it's empty, you've already slowed down.

[seriousstan]

4. Would this be "impersonating a police officer"?

[TlalocW]

7. Good point

And could we make a citizen's arrest of them?

"Tell it to the judge, Gramps!"

TlalocW

[trof]

5. In Japan, they use actual "decoys".

Wood and plastic "police cars" with uniformed dummy behind the wheel.
Parked next to a highway they are very effective in slowing traffic down to the speed limit.

[Book Lover]

6. In Suffolk County, NY also

I once needed to ask a cop about something while my mom and I were on the road. We saw the car and stopped; I got out and walked up to the cop car, where I found a mannequin instead of a cop. Good thing I wasn't in actual danger.

[durablend]

10. Same in Pennsylvania

State police used to stick a cruiser with a mannequin driver along parts of I-81 some years ago. People must've caught on as they stopped doing it awhile back.

[KittyWampus]

14. I Live In Eastern Suffolk. That Was Officer Mannie Quinn & He Ended Up

getting stolen out of the squad car and placed in a cab of a garbage truck one night.

People complained Mannie was disrespectful to cops so he was replaced by a digital screen that can detect speed of oncoming cars and display it.

People do slow down when they see how fast they're going.

[Book Lover]

17. I would rather have the radar box than the dummy

I was so pissed off - what if I had *needed* a person? Cops aren't there for decoration - I could have been in immediate danger! OK, maybe there's little immediate danger in Sag Harbor/Shelter Island, but you know what i mean :-)

[egoprofit]

13. crazy japanese!! :)

[MisterP]

15. heck, we in the U.S. do that for the Oval Office!

[uppityperson]

8. Local town used old cop car, dummy holding hair dryer

Slowed people down but eventually someone torched the dummy and car. Poor Officer Bob had to get replaced. It worked though.

[DrWeird]

9. Yeah, they used to put dummies in old cop cars here.

To get back at them, I found an actual cop waiting at a speed trap, put a dummy in a car, put a brick on the gas, at let it speed past the cop.

[egoprofit]

11. i wanna drive a polics car!! i'd totally volunteer... n/t

[LiviaOlivia]

12. I lived in a small town in Arizona during the 1980's

The police would park a PD vehicle on a corner close to my home and leave it there with a uniformed CPR dummy behind the wheel.

[ticapnews]

16. In a town near here they just park an empty police car on the median strip

From a distance you can't tell it's empty and everyone hits the brakes real fast. Of course, when they go past and see the car is empty, they put the hammer back down.

The PD ought to park a real cop a quarter mile down the road to nail the speeders...

[benburch]

18. Illinois State Police did this on the tollways...

One day I stopped and put a box of stale Dunkin Donuts on the roof of the squad as a joke... And it was talked about on the radio...