VIRGINIA STATE POLICE: Operation Air, Land, and Revenue Generation

[SpeedUp]

Nice Hellginia State Police, at it again ticketing anyone that drives.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/loc...-issued-i.html


2,700 speeding tickets issued in Va.

September 21, 2010; 10:50 AM ET

A weekend enforcement effort by the Virginia State Police on Interstates 95, 81 and 85 resulted in more than 4,800 summonses and arrests.

More than 2,700 of the tickets were for speeding. State police also said in a release Monday that troopers charged 618 reckless drivers and 19 drunk drivers. A total of 175 safety-belt violations were cited, and troopers made 17 felony drug arrests.

The crackdown Saturday and Sunday was part of the state police's “"Operation Air, Land and Speed” initiative on highly traveled highways in Virginia. The program uses troopers in cruisers and on motorcycles, along with aviation teams.

-- Associated Press

Read the comments at the bottom, Hilarious.

[kpatz]

More than 2,700 of the tickets were for speeding. State police also said in a release Monday that troopers charged 618 reckless drivers and 19 drunk drivers. A total of 175 safety-belt violations were cited, and troopers made 17 felony drug arrests.

If the speed limits were correctly set, there would have been just a few hundred speeding tickets. If they had reasonable reckless driving laws, they would have had fewer than 100 of those too. I'm sure 500+ of those 618 "reckless" tickets were simply speeding over 80.

[krypton2]

Geez! It's bad that 618 of the citations were for reckless driving, but it says a lot that there were 2100 others that were plain speeding tickets. It doesn't sound like there was much of a cushion for that initiative.

The other stats kinda show it all...if you're pulling over 5000 cars, you should be able to encounter more than 175 people without their seat belts on.

I'm actually curious now what the other 1000 citations were issued for, being that it wasn't even mentioned...

[kpatz]

I'm actually curious now what the other 1000 citations were issued for, being that it wasn't even mentioned...

RD tickets?

[aa2033]

What the hell? i thought air enforcement was over with?

[JamSession]

VA residents can now sleep safer at night knowing their state police are really making a difference and deterring crime. I mean, the guy going 71 in a 65 zone is a menace to society and must be dealt with. Never mind that those police man-hours could have been spent fighting real crime, but alas that would involve way too much for too little gain. Instead of coming up with these stupid, childish enforcement slogans, how about some truth in advertising.

My suggestion: "This is your VA state police advising you that the state coffers are running low, therefore we will be out in force this weekend under the guise of "safety".

Or maybe: "VA is for lovers, but not those who drive more than 5mph over the PSL"

[krypton2]

What the hell? i thought air enforcement was over with?

I thought air, land, and speed was a permanent thing...like every few months.

I don't know if this is relevant to this particular effort, but I found a document from VSP when they first began this in 2009...apparently, the revenue from then was sent to the state's literacy fund. After researching, I guess it's an organization dedicated to educating illiterate people. I wonder what they did with all of that money.

[aa2033]

6% of virginias entire population is hispanic.
5% of those are in Fairfax -_-"

[switch626]

This is just plain sad that they are always doing this to motorists.

[Hunter]

This is just plain sad that they are always doing this to motorists.

agreed..
bottom line it is just a cash grab..