Watch for airplanes in Washington...

ccriderXX

I was listening to my radio scanner Friday night and heard some officers coordinating a "DUI Emphasis" patrol. Then I saw this airplane making runs along the freeway. This seemed odd to me as it was about 1:30am. But then some of the radio transmissions made sense. The Washington State Patrol was using a Cessna with FLIR (infared) to track drunk drivers. While that is a admirable goal, that is not all they use this for.

Here is a story about the "emphasis". There is a link to a video in the story.

State patrol tracks DUIs in the sky
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_052607WABduiairplaneKS.1206563e.html

Then there is a video of how they stopped a bike. I didn't see him do
anything too erratic, except maybe a little bit of speed.

Raw: Erratic biker caught by WSP plane (eyeroll)
http://www.king5.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=148342

I sure feel safer now that I am being spyed on from the sky. :-\

flitemdic

That's what passes for irratic driving in Washington?!!!?

Frankly, someone I know real well occassionally does worse than that on the morning commute. Crossing over a HOV solid line? OK. Not signalling? Maybe, who knows? Speeding? I don't know, in comparison to the rest of the traffic it didn't look like he was going that fast on too many occassions. A good lawyer could probably get that one tossed. I wonder about the resisting, too. No sound, nothing close, and I wasn't there, but jeez.

__________________
N2YN 8/22/2004

Zuus

It is sad that is the worst traffic infraction they could find.
Cops don't usually take someone to the ground for no reason, especially in Washington. Glad it wasn't me. . . .

Growler67

The aircraft have been overhead for some time now. I actually talk to them on occasion at work. I've seen them over 512 from Lakewood to Puyallup several times in the last couple of months.

The crossing of the HOV line and passing to the right may have been considered "erratic" and the speeding might have been added on. However I think he go st00pid when it appears the cruiser (that presumably eventually made the stop) came up behind him and he appeared to attempt to evade. Eventually crossing a couple of lanes on his way to an off ramp. That tend to get the adrenalin going in most LEO's. After he eventually stopped who knows what he might have said or did or failed to do as instructed? Perhaps he was told to keep his helmet on as it could be used as a weapon and when he made what might have appeared o be a motion to remove it the LEO took him down. I don't know as I am not privy to the verbal exchange.

However, in typical fashion since I've visited and now live in this state, the looky loo's are more than willing to stop and block traffic for a roadside drama wherever they might be. I have NEVER been anywhere where people come to a complete stop on a freeway for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and then move on again slowly. The left laners are usually driving too slow to begin with which might have instigated this whole thing in the first place. Wanna drive slow? Move to the right, PLEASE!!!!

I just avoid general "squid" behavior anyways so I'm not worried about the "eye in the sky".

BTW, that video link was from 12 months ago.

__________________
"Just leave me some ammo, a little water...........and some chips if you have 'em"
"Actually it's a buck and a quarter quarter-staff, but I'm not telling HIM that...........YOIKS and Away!!!!"

ccriderXX

So was the post.