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Published on Thursday, January 22, 2004
in the Palm Beach Post
Florida Highway Patrol trooper Kevin Strickland was calmly cruising along in an unmarked car when a motorist raced up on his rear bumper, the kind of thing that can lead to road rage on the mean streets of South Florida.
To get the driver to back off, Strickland tapped his brakes. The driver flashed an obscene gesture. Imagine the driver's surprise when Strickland hit his blue lights and slapped him with a ticket.
Welcome to the Florida Highway Patrol's new offensive against the kind of driving that has made expressways infamous. It's called Operation RADAR, for Removing Aggressive Drivers and Road Rage.
The program will begin Friday, when Strickland and three other troopers in unmarked cars will roam I-95 through Palm Beach County looking for dangerous drivers. Eventually, the program will extend to Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.
Using cars that blend into traffic will make a big difference in catching the most serious offenders, FHP Lt. Tim Frith said.
"Driver attitudes are totally different when they see marked cars," Frith said.
Most motorists slow down, even if they're obeying the speed limit, when they see a police car topped with emergency lights. Not so with the high-performance Mercury Marauders and Ford Mustang that will be used with the new enforcement operation.
Expect a lot of tickets. And fewer obscene gestures.
"Aggressive drivers cause problems not only for themselves but for others," said Strickland, who has watched cars speed on the highway shoulder in construction zones to get around slow-moving traffic. "They're a danger to others as well as themselves."
The state does not keep statistics on the number of crashes caused by aggressive driving. A 2001 state law defined aggressive driving as a combination of at least two moving violations, such as running a red light, improper passing, following too closely and speeding.
The law also does not provide specific penalties for aggressive driving. Troopers check a box on the ticket indicating that the motorist was driving aggressively. Cpl. Gary Baker, a training officer with the local FHP troop, is meeting with traffic court magistrates to explain the program and urge them to use their discretion to impose maximum penalties.
FHP supervisors plan to review the program after 45 days to gauge the extent of the problem and whether to expand or modify the operation. Stopping bad driving will not be easy.
Construction and congestion on I-95 can make drivers so frustrated that they do irrational things, Frith said. The construction is going to continue for another five years and the number of cars traveling the highway is going to increase.
During Operation RADAR, the FHP will use airplanes to track lawbreaking motorists. The troopers' cars will be equipped with cameras to provide additional evidence in court.
Troopers said they are not trying to trick drivers by using the unmarked cars. Last year they dressed as construction workers to slow down speeders in work zones.
One day recently, just minutes after getting on Interstate 95, Strickland spotted his target.
The driver of a gray Pontiac Grand Prix heading south in Boca Raton was tailgating and weaving from lane to lane doing 75 mph.
The Delray Beach driver argued that she did nothing wrong and accused the trooper of harassing her. Strickland asked her at least four times to sign the ticket before she relented. And then she said she could not read the citation.
"Most people don't say, 'Thank you,' " Strickland said, "But they're not that rude."