A friend, who at the time was a highway design civil engineer for the State of MO, was driving on highway 70 from KC to St Louis.

He is one of the very few I know who will drive the speed limit and he entered a long highway construction zone at normal highway speed. While he was in the zone they reduced the speed limit and he was nabbed and received the huge penalty ticket despite his story to the officer.

He was following the rules.

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

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Ordinarily you could just look for the construction "worker" not doing any work and pick him out as an undercover. But based on what I've seen working on the highways in Illinois I don't think it would be nearly as obvious

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Troopers are required to learn to lean on their shovels. It is a two week course.

2 weeks with pay, of course.

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Wilson said so far in 2019, 19 trooper cars have been hit. Seventeen of those cars were pulled over on the side of the road.

I wonder how many of those 19 trooper cars that have been hit were in a construction zone? Or if that is just fluff for the story?

The video from the story:

I remember in the late 80’s when the Illinois highway patrol refused to patrol through East St. Louis. I left Illinois in 87 and haven’t been there since.

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Originally posted by mrvmax:
I remember in the late 80’s when the Illinois highway patrol refused to patrol through East St. Louis. I left Illinois in 87 and haven’t been there since.

I have family there and only go back every 5-10 years.

Blinding led blue lights are the cause of allot of the rear ending of leo cars ...imo

Hahahha. Operation HardHat. Or is it Operation LardAss? Somebody dig up Stacey Keach. Don’t cops ever watch Cheech & Chong?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MpM3ePF3CHE

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Originally posted by Haveme1or2:
Blinding led blue lights are the cause of allot of the rear ending of leo cars ...imo

OK. No more lights

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Originally posted by Haveme1or2:
Blinding led blue lights are the cause of allot of the rear ending of leo cars ...imo

YES. I was going down I-25 from Santa Fe into Albuquerque and for what seemed like 30 miles, all you could see was the blinding lights on the back of 3 patrol cars posted in various spots within the work zone. They could dial those LED's back about 30% and still be very effective.

In the rain and fog, I feel that it seems amplified.

I have rarely been in a construction zone when workers were present. I don't know when they get the work done, but they have the cones and barricades up all the time. Flow of traffic around here is always 10-15 mph over the limit. And there are so many construction zones where work is never done, it's hard to know what's really a construction zone. For the big stuff, they close the road at 9pm from Friday through Sunday and have signs everywhere warning about it. Seems to me, flashing lights at the beginning of a construction zone would slow all but the most absentminded drivers down. But then that's not usually the goal of traffic enforcement.

Years back when they passed a similar law in NY, their response was to put up multiple "work zones" in a row, that were literally 10-15 miles each. Of course with no actual work going on, just ten miles of cones (then left them there for what seemed like years. Someones cousin must have had the traffic cone contract) This of course on a road that's 55mph, with more than 50% of the traffic doing at least 70mph plus on average, then put up cones to make it "45mph" with double fines. $$$$$ It's gotten better in recent years thankfully.

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a similar law in NY, their response was to put up multiple "work zones" in a row, that were literally 10-15 miles each. Of course with no actual work going on, just ten miles of cones (then left them there for what seemed like years.

I have no problem with honest law enforcement in legitimate work zones. It saves lives.
But what you are talking about is infuriating, because it's not legitimate. At some point the public comes to believe that law enforcement is all about the revenue and that undermines trust. When that happens an 'us vs. them' mentality develops among the public and there is no longer any cooperation between law enforcement and the people they are meant to serve.

Here in Mississippi some of the construction is done at night. It is rather impressive and much more efficient. The lights are similar to what they use to light up the ballpark and the surrounding area is greatly illuminated. The crews start at about ten and quit just before dawn. There is less traffic and work proceeds efficiently. The number of trucks and workers approach a small army. Of course we still have the "Illinois model", where everything is under construction and lanes are shut down during peak traffic times.

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Originally posted by Haveme1or2:
Blinding led blue lights are the cause of allot of the rear ending of leo cars ...imo

Absolutely right. I have come up from behind squads that have someone pulled over and it's blinding. Very dangerous.

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Originally posted by smschulz:

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Originally posted by ArtieS:

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"It's not about writing tickets," Illinois State Trooper Jason Wilson said. "It's not about pulling people over, it's about keeping people safe."

Horseshit. If that were the case, they'd put a marked unit with the blues on at the entry point to the construction zone, and another one half way through the construction zone. Bust anyone who doesn't get the message. If you are wearing disguises and hiding the cars, you are revenuers, not public safety guardians.

Completely agree Artie.

The article states that 17 parked patrol vehicles have been struck in construction zones. I think this is less about construction worker safety than people getting mesmerized by police cars and driving into them.

As someone who works in these construction zones and has damn near been plowed over by someone more than once I don’t give a damn if they fly an Apache and blow the speeders to high hell. A few weeks ago my company had a guy killed inside the barrels from some guy speeding and not paying attention. He blew through the barrel and creamed him.
Do whatever you need to get people below the construction zone limit. That might be enough time for a guy to jump out of the way or move enough so he isn’t killed.
And yes we had cops (3) before the actual work area. Doesn’t change the fact that his kids don’t have a father and his wife is now a widow.
I had my own close call as well. Had a driver get so close they took the safety vest off my body with their mirror. 2” more towards me would have killed me.

Everything the State of IL. does is parasitic on the citizens. Go to Cook County and then Chicago and the blood sucking only gets worse and far more aggressive and blatant.
Still, the Dem. morons that live in the population centers vote these blood suckers back in year after year, they are simply too stupid to realize that they are the prey.

If the State Police actually wanted to protect the construction workers they certainly could, unfortunately that would not generate any money, it would only save lives, no profit in that.
I don't blame the IL. State Police, they are puppets and are told what to do by politicians.

Where will the rest of the village people be hiding?

Considering 50% of all highways are construction zones - that going to be a lot of undercover officers.

Where will the rest of the village people be hiding?[/quote]
RIGHT HERE: