A tailgating incident only this time its a trooper.
Hobbit -
CleanMPG - Aug. 25, 2009
Saturday 22-Aug-2009 at around 14:41 in the afternoon on the Mass Pike westbound. 61.4 mile-marker visible on the bridge.
This is an in-progress version of what I intend to send to the appropriate management within our state police turnpike authority, once I determine the right place. I am now expecting return calls from two separate people for how to deliver this, and I suspect that I'm going to have to print this out and snail-mail it in since they seem to be rather cagey about email addresses. That renders the benefit of clickable links kind of moot, but whatever. Comments on intent, wording, topic, length etc are hereby solicited.
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This is to bring your attention to what I consider a serious safety matter involving a state trooper.
This picture was shot from my vantage point in the right-hand lane. Note the State Police cruiser one car up in the left lane, behind a dark SUV. This pair of vehicles had gone past me just moments before, with the cruiser LESS than a car-length behind the SUV traveling at or above the posted speed limit of 65 on a wet road. The cruiser continued to tailgate the same vehicle for quite some time as they receded away ahead of me, but took no other action such as pulling the SUV over.
One has to ask, how is this a good example to the motoring public?
I understand and completely respect the difficult tasks that state troopers face, and that manpower vs. the number of hours in a day is always an issue. I generally wouldn't presume to tell an officer how to do his job, but but in this case I could not discern any justification for this sort of less-than-professional practice in traffic.
I believe this same cruiser had been proceeding westbound for some distance, pausing briefly to check out a couple of stopped vehicles and then catching up to me again later so we may have been sort of "leapfrogging" each other. I would expect that this was all fairly routine duty, and as far as I could tell the officer in question was *not* in an emergency-response situation at this time -- that's what the light bar is for, correct? But it was not lit here. If he had a genuine need to push traffic out of the left lane to make faster headway, why did he not use the recognized means instead of going at it in this totally unsafe and unclear manner? Why is someone entrusted to serve and protect the public casually placing the public as well as himself in harm's way like this? If the SUV had encountered some minor problem or need to slow down at all, there likely would have been a collision.
Honestly, and I'm sure you're well aware of this, drivers get enough of this reckless endangerment from other regular drivers; they really don't need it from police personnel in addition. I understand that police are trained in a variety of evasive and pursuit driving techniques, but I would have a hard time believing this sort of action is one of them.
What I would love to see is WAY more enforcement of our EXISTING laws on following too closely, as the instances of aggression and needlessly close tailgating are numerous and it's especially important to put a stop to it in the case of large trucks. Surely the administrative and enforcement arms of the state are well aware of this? If a reminder is needed, I encourage taking an unmarked vehicle out and doing the speed limit in the right lane, and just observe around you and especially behind.
All of those clear violations could simply be picked off, one by one, day after day, and some form of video-backed enforcement could make it that much easier without need for hazardous traffic stops. The technology of "dashcams" and video evidence collection are well understood by now, and the equipment is becoming much less expensive. It seems reasonable to think that the process of citing many more of these incidents could be made quite efficient with a little automation, similar to that now done with tollbooth or red-light cameras, and appropriate legislative support.
I stopped off at the Westfield barracks a few miles later on the Pike, and tried to bring this to the attention of the desk officer there, who tried to turn the whole thing back against me by suggesting that taking a picture from a car is distracting. That's not the answer I was looking for, and I don't appreciate being stonewalled like that. You'll note the large clear space ahead of me -- that's intentional, and is generally where I try to place myself in on any road, and shooting a quick one-handed picture from there is no more a distraction than the numerous other and worse things people try to manage in addition to the task of driving. One picture is not a phone conversation, for example, and I didn't think it was really appropriate for the desk dispatcher to basically *defend* this officer's actions by denigrating someone taking the time to come in and express concern about it. He suggested that I call 911 to pursue the matter -- rather ridiculous, as it was not an emergency situation.
Please do what you can to fix these problems long-term, and help make our Massachusetts police some of the safest out there. The public needs to feel confident about their police forces, not threatened! Exemplary conduct and personal accountability for actions is only the start for that. It has been a little frustrating trying to find the right person to report this to; it would be great to see that become a more streamlined process in the future if there's a way to accomplish it. Please feel free to write or call if you have any comments/questions or advice to help me understand my best course of action in cases like these.
The full-view picture. It is not completely clear from this or the detail what the unit number on the roof is, but it might be 634 or 834 or the like. You can probably pin it down by records of who had what car out at the time.
While there may be disciplinary procedures for matters like this, it is not just about a single member of the force. I would think that you'd be concerned that ALL your personnel recognize that this sort of behavior on the road is noticed and is not viewed as safe or acceptable by other road users.
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