FC: Radar-gun vigilantes team up with cops to nab speeders --NYT

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: "Danny Yavuzkurt" <ady1 () psu edu>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: NYT: Armed With Radar, Civilians Take Aim At Speeders
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 09:01:28 -0500

Article from the NY Times about regular people who take the law, er, radar
guns, into their own hands, then turn over information on speeders to the
police (though at least for now it doesn't have any real punitive effect,
other than a 'please stop speeding' letter sent to the owner of the car).

Perhaps, though, this article showcases a growing trend of the citizenry
cooperating with, even deputizing itself to, the police.  Good or bad?  Are
the US populace slowly changing into collaborators to a police state?  Or
should regular citizens have the right to determine *by themselves* (with the
help of technology) whether people are breaking the law, and to report it to
the police (who, after all, can't be there all the time)?  A few interesting
issues to think about...

-Danny

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/25/national/25RADA.html

March 25, 2002

Armed With Radar, Civilians Take Aim at Speeders

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

PLEASANTON, Calif. - They never aspired to work for the law. They did not give
their operation a code name. But when things got out of control in their
neighborhood, Amy Hiss and Kathy Maio teamed up for a bona fide sting
operation, with full police backing.

They stood at opposite ends of the block, the botanist and the librarian, hid
behind trees and communicated with each other via cellphone. Ms. Hiss held the
radar gun, while her partner wrote down the license numbers of their quarry:
drivers exceeding 30 miles per hour.

"We even had her little girl working with us - in case the cellphones went
out," said Ms. Hiss, 37, whose day job is researching wetlands and endangered
plants for an engineering firm. "It was exciting at first," she said of the
stakeout. "But it got boring fast."

The police in a growing number of cities, including this San Francisco suburb,
are lending radar guns to residents who want to help crack down on traffic
offenders. The volunteers then turn the information over to the police, who
send letters to car owners telling them that their cars were seen speeding and
reminding them to observe speed limits. No one is ticketed, because a car's
registered owner might not be the driver.

[...]




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