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Published on Friday, April 25, 2003
in the Orlando Sentinel
The visibility was clear for about 20 miles in any direction.
The speeding truck stuck out easily from the plane's vantage point 2,000 feet above the ground.
Pulling a trailer, the white truck zoomed past surrounding traffic on U.S. Highway 27.
"I think we have another qualifier," Sgt. Luis Badia said as the Florida Highway Patrol pilot guided his Cessna 172 over the suspected speeder.
When the truck hit the "course," a quarter-mile stretch of road marked by two 1-foot-wide white lines, Badia punched his stopwatch.
Less than 12 seconds later, the truck unknowingly zipped through the end of the course. His speed: 75 mph. It was a 55-mph zone.
Radioing to troopers on the ground, Badia alerted his colleagues below to stop the driver: "Our next qualifier is a white truck pulling a trailer. He'll be number three in the outside lane."
Badia's cohorts waited about a mile down the road.
The troopers slowed traffic and pulled over the suspected speeder. In about 30 minutes, Badia helped nab four others.
8 planes, 10 pilots
The FHP's aviation unit, including eight planes and 10 pilots, has patrolled the skies above the Sunshine State since 1962, said Capt. Matthew Walker, the unit's commander.
Tracking speeders isn't their only mission, however.
FHP pilots spend thousands of hours aloft each year searching for criminals, monitoring traffic patterns and helping other law-enforcement agencies in a variety of ways.
Speed enforcement, though, remains the main goal.
In the 2001-02 fiscal year, FHP pilots flew more than 2,500 hours. Of that, more than 1,400 hours were dedicated to speed-check zones.
Nearly 29,000 tickets were issued, panning out to more than 20 tickets per hour. Fines totaled a little more than $3.6 million -- money that goes into county coffers -- according to an FHP report. The average citation costs a speeder $125.
The aviation program, meanwhile, spends only $178,000 of the FHP's $162 million budget.
No warning given
The agency doesn't publicize where the pilots will be at any given time, but signs alert motorists entering the state that their speed may be monitored by air.
"The ground units identify areas where they are having a lot of problems with speeders or a lot of accidents," Badia said. "Then they request us [the pilots]. They set up the course, and then we come in and work it."
About noon on April 15, Badia took to the skies over U.S. 27, near Florida's Turnpike, for a speed-check flight. He covers Orange, Lake, Osceola, Seminole, Brevard and Volusia counties within Troop D.
For Badia, it's multi-tasking for sure. First, a trooper in a patrol car rolls through the 1,320-foot zone at 55 mph, allowing Badia to check his stopwatch. It takes 16 seconds. Perfect.
Badia then flies an oval over the zone looking for speeders, watching for traffic from the sky, keeping an eye on the turnpike for any aberrant drivers, punching his stopwatch, keeping contact with the troopers on the ground and recording everything by hand on a tablet sitting on a clipboard in his lap.
"It's actually not too bad up here today," Badia said. "They [drivers] seem to be doing pretty good."
Then he sees a green car in the outside lane moving past traffic.
"Let's check him out," Badia said.
He punches his stopwatch when the green car hits the zone. Just over 10 seconds later, he punches the watch again.
"That's 83 mph," he said. "He qualifies." Badia and company go to work.
'It is very stealth'
It's a strange mixture of high-tech and low-tech, but it works.
"There is no radar," Badia said. "They can't detect us. It is very stealth."
And effective. The FHP said the conviction rate with the method is about 99 percent.
Orlando defense attorney Robert Skubiak, who has defended speeders receiving tickets from sky troopers, said it's a tough rap to fight.
"About the only defense is independent recollection" from the troopers on the ground and the pilot, Skubiak said. "They [the troopers] have to actually remember the driver, or I'll ask for their testimony not to be entered."
The numbers, Skubiak agrees, are hard to argue.
"So long as they can prove their calculations, it's hard to beat," he said.
Alone, but not lonely
While Badia said he spends most of his time in the air alone, it's not a lonely job.
"There's always something going on. Sure, I'm by myself, but I'm not really alone," he said, referring to his ground team.
Badia, 39, the father of two sons, said he realizes the danger involved in flying. Five troopers have died in three crashes in the program's four decades.
"It's an airplane," he said. "There's always some danger in that. My sons worry a little bit about it."
While Badia recognizes the danger for himself, he thinks the program saves lives.
"Who knows how many accidents we have prevented, how many lives we've saved," he said.