The Arizona Department of Public Safety will be cutting highway patrol time by 10 percent to save on gas. Unfortunately, the officers will not be spending their extra time brushing up on tactical training, participating in a fitness program or attending college level courses on justice or ethics.
No, they'll be writing more tickets.
DPS Director Roger Vanderpool was quoted in The Arizona Republic last Thursday saying that supplanting patrols with further static posts is to counter the "tremendous negative impact" of high gas prices. Apparently, Vanderpool failed to consider the "tremendous negative impact" more traffic tickets have on the population.
There is a rather less-than-subtle difference between patrols and static posts: Patrols thrive on visibility, static posts on the lack of visibility.
One could argue that static units conceal themselves because drivers would cause accidents and traffic jams, braking too heavily if static posts were in plain view. But this only reinforces my point: The fear of ticketing negates any feelings of safety, since we all know why the officer is sitting there.
This changes the posture of the officers, as well. Officers formally patrolling must know their reception, as a static unit, will be entirely different. Patrolling officers can help stranded motorists, call EMS or the fire department for highway emergencies and even call Animal Control for hurt or stranded animals along the highway.
A static unit can sit, give a ticket and then sit some more.
Also, no one inclined toward criminal activity will be deterred from such activity based on the presence of static posts, particularly ones that are unseen. Patrols do discourage such activity, however.
Even DPS's mission statement mentions "protecting human life" and "deterring criminal activity." I must have missed what this has to do with hiding behind a shrub, waiting to give traffic tickets.
Indeed, Hurricane Katrina has caused a difficult-to-bear flux in our gas prices. Cutting police miles seems like a logical way to save the state money.
But how about halving the frequency of bus routes for buses that consistently carry fewer than half their potential payload of passengers? Buses may seem like a great way to conserve fuel until you consider what a waste of resources it is to have a gas-driven bus carrying two people. Sure, some buses are packed during rush hour, but that constitutes only a small portion of their hours.
And there's nothing that makes me more uncomfortable than driving along and having a cop pull in behind me. I know the officer is looking for burned out taillights, watching my speed -- maybe even running my plates.
It is a violating feeling, and it is unpleasant. But it's not quite so unpleasant, I am certain, as having someone intent on running me off the road or jacking my car with no officer in sight.
Some ideas DPS has come up with to save fuel are sounder, like having officers write their reports on the road and carpooling to training. Officers could set up highly visible static posts just to slow people down while knocking out their paperwork from the shift.
Gas prices are notorious for climbing in seconds and falling over several months, so the high prices are bound to last a while longer. So if DPS is going to stymie the amount of patrols (and with it, their visibility), maybe the best solution is to have more static posts in plain sight. Drivers will get used to the idea eventually, and maybe people like me won't immediately equate static posts with nothing but a ticket waiting to happen.
Darren Todd is an English literature graduate student. Reach him at darren.todd@cox.net.
