Virginia State Police Disbands Aerial Operations

[SpeedUp]

Citing cost, Virginia ends aerial speed patrols | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com

By Kristin Davis
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 1, 2009

The Cessna spent 4-1/2 hours in the air Dec. 6, manned by Virginia State Police and winging over Interstate 64 in Chesapeake on a hunt for dangerous drivers.

They issued 14 tickets that Saturday, and it turned out those would be the last. Troopers haven't taken to the sky to enforce the rules of the road since.

Those 14 tickets came at a cost of roughly $90 an hour.

Nine years after Virginia changed its law to allow State Police to catch speeders from the air, the program is effectively over.

State Police blame millions of dollars in budget cuts, which have also forced the closure of its Manassas airport and the sale of one of its planes, spokeswoman Deborah Cox said.

The program might be re-instated when times are better. But the lawmaker who sponsored the bill that made aerial patrols possible doesn't expect that to happen until 2011 or later.

"It's really a shame," said Del. Jim Shuler of Blacksburg. "It's an excellent additional tool to monitor traffic and keep it under control. I hate to see programs like this cut. But the fact of the matter is Virginia State Police have been asked to do more and more law enforcement duties over the last few years with less and less funding."

State Police tout air patrols as a stealthy way to crack down on aggressive and dangerously fast drivers. You can see more from up there, drivers watching for police don't think to look up and radar detectors don't give airplanes away.

In 2000, signs went up along interstates across the commonwealth alerting drivers: "Speed limit enforced by aircraft." Four Cessnas were equipped with devices that calculate speed based on distance traveled and the time it took to travel that distance. A pilot, along with a trooper or sergeant or both, flew over interstates with course sites - three solid white lines at which State Police pushed a button when a vehicle crossed it, Cox said.

If the driver was speeding, the trooper in the air radioed a trooper on the ground, who would pull the car over. By year's end, State Police had issued 671 tickets. In 2001, they wrote 2,145. Then the number dropped drastically the following year, to 686. It fell to 111 in 2004.

Cox said pilots flew depending on weather, budget, man power and State Police projects; they never intended to patrol from the air every day.

When State Police began Operation Air, Land and Speed in July 2006, tickets took a big jump. The project pulled extra troopers to certain areas to target speeders and aggressive and reckless drivers, Cox said. The project continued through all of 2007; nearly 700 tickets were issued that year.

Then came 2008, and a single mission - the one over Chesapeake that produced 14 tickets. Deaths on Virginia roads last year dropped to the lowest point in the more than four decades State Police has tracked them, in part because fewer people were driving.

But, Shuler noted, truck traffic remains plenty heavy on Interstates 81 and 95. Those are the same roadways that concerned him nine years ago.

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com

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[SpeedinLancer]

I've never really been a fan of any form of vascar. I wish this would happen everywhere.

[supercowpowers]

So all of those ugly "SPEED LIMIT ENFORCED BY AIRCRAFT" signs will be going away?

Or maybe they're too poor to do anything with them. They have more of those things than we have "SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT" signs, if that says anything...

Deaths on Virginia roads last year dropped to the lowest point in the more than four decades State Police has tracked them, in part because fewer people were driving.

An article that doesn't credit overbearing police presence with lower accident rates! I'm honestly shocked.

[SpeedUp]

So all of those ugly "SPEED LIMIT ENFORCED BY AIRCRAFT" signs will be going away?

Or maybe they're too poor to do anything with them. They have more of those things than we have "SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT" signs, if that says anything...

Deaths on Virginia roads last year dropped to the lowest point in the more than four decades State Police has tracked them, in part because fewer people were driving.

An article that doesn't credit overbearing police presence with lower accident rates! I'm honestly shocked.

I think Vascar is BS and shouldn't be used but I rarely see it. I doubt they'll take the signs down just to keep scaring people. My favorite signs in the Police State of Virginia is the Highway Safety Corridor...aka get raped with an even larger fine for speeding (doing 10 over)...nice Virginia.

[stealthJamal]

$90 per hour, that seems cheap for aircraft VASCAR enforcement. I would have guessed that it would have cost more than that. The LEO's can still use those white lines for the airplanes on the interstates for ground VASCAR if they want to. The VSP car I found in the parking lot with a Spectre IV (video I made) had a ground VASCAR unit in the patrol vehicle. It may not be common but there is still some ground VASCAR in Virginia.

[supercowpowers]

$90 per hour, that seems cheap for aircraft VASCAR enforcement. I would have guessed that it would have cost more than that. The LEO's can still use those white lines for the airplanes on the interstates for ground VASCAR if they want to. The VSP car I found in the parking lot with a Spectre IV (video I made) had a ground VASCAR unit in the patrol vehicle. It may not be common but there is still some ground VASCAR in Virginia.

Well if you consider "craft" to be a CVPI and "air" to be suspended over the roadway by an overpass... I guess the signs are still valid.

[SpeedUp]

$90 per hour, that seems cheap for aircraft VASCAR enforcement. I would have guessed that it would have cost more than that. The LEO's can still use those white lines for the airplanes on the interstates for ground VASCAR if they want to. The VSP car I found in the parking lot with a Spectre IV (video I made) had a ground VASCAR unit in the patrol vehicle. It may not be common but there is still some ground VASCAR in Virginia.

That is interesting, I do think it is phasing out somewhat though...I have yet to hear anyone that I know traveling through VA get a VASCAR speed ticket though. They have all be Radar or Paced.

[STiMULi]

So all of those ugly "SPEED LIMIT ENFORCED BY AIRCRAFT" signs will be going away?

Time to steal a sign or two for old times sake?

[SpeedUp]

So all of those ugly "SPEED LIMIT ENFORCED BY AIRCRAFT" signs will be going away?

Time to steal a sign or two for old times sake?

Way ahead of you

[Stealth Stalker]

Time to steal a sign or two for old times sake?

I bet a bunch of them have bullet holes in them. They would in Texas!