Did you see this tiny story from today's Free Press?
Given the fact that the Staties have been going ticket-crazy in recent winters, making it clear that they will ticket anyone who loses control and goes off the road, it makes you wonder, doesn't it? Did Trooper Jollymore get a ticket for driving too fast for conditions?
Police are the worst traffic offenders. They always drive the same speed whether the blue lights are flashing or not.
Just last week I was on 89 North going 67 – 73 MPH and a car came flying up behind me at 85 – 90. It stayed behind me tailgating me for two minutes and then passed me. Sure enough it’s a state trooper.
There was no indication in the Free Press story that the guy was engaged in a chase or doing anything that necessitated high-speed driving.
Temper your wonder with the concept that troopers spend proportionally much more time out on the highways, in all conditions, than your average Vermonter. They can’t say “Oh, it’s kind of snotty out. I guess I’ll stay home.” Higher risk exposure. I’m surprised we don’t see more of this.
I asked my cousin, a cop down in Georgia, about this cop speed phenomenon. He told me that his policy is to go the limit plus five, in the left hand lane of the interstate. If he pegs it on the limit then everyone around him goes a few MPH slower, and he causes his own personal traffic jam.
No excuse for warp speed “just because I can”, but sometimes cops respond to a call minus lights and siren.
The best policy is to sternly say “Bad cop! No doughnut!”
Lucky the guy wasn’t injured but they seem to have two speeds, 80+ mph or stopped with nothing in between. I wonder what speed and vehicle the trooper was driving. The VSP just rolled out a new fleet of 20 new sedans and 24 SUV’s at a cost of $900,000.
It is a lot of time behind the wheel and may soon be even more. A plan in 2012 was (is?) being considered to close several rural VSP barracks. The reasoning used was that the troopers in cruisers operate essentially as an “office on wheels” and therefore the barracks won’t be missed.
Offices on wheels sometimes find themselves wrecked,upside down on their roof.
yes, sort of. The VSP drive like the hinges of hell whenever they feel like it. I have stories.
However when the lives of innocent Vermonters are compromised due to this practice are placed at risk & in harms way, enhanced surrviellance of the ‘perps’, in this case the VSP is more than warranted.
more than likely the need to close some of the more rural is that the cost to maintain the new palaces like the one in Addison County and other areas is so much higher. In that case, it amazed me that they went from a converted restaurant to something easily 6 times in size, which would have been great if it contained a few community rooms or some other redemption value, but in fact they are little compound/fortresses that access to is verboten. Even the current Williston shop you are lucky to be able to get inside the front door without ringing a bell and getting an eyeball scan.
Between that and milking the retirement system…..jeesum
good question for a shummy presser would be “was this guy on routine patrol or responding to something that is on the dispatch record?” The only regular self actuation is via observation on the road, everything else comes from dispatch and it is time logged, etc. FOIA
would probably be an entertaining story….. with an “I’ll get back to you on that”