Suffolk County sheriff’s are taking to the air for their traffic enforcement.
The agency tested the use of a small plane over the Long Island Expressway to spot bad drivers during Friday morning’s rush hour. Once aggressive drivers were spotted from above, details were radioed to deputies below.
Deputies handed out 88 traffic tickets between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m., many based on what the spotters saw from the single-engine plane.
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“This aerial enforcement technology will enable us to spot these drivers quickly and get them off our roads,” said Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco.
The plane was a loaner from Bergen County, N.J.
Suffolk County has applied to the federal government for funding for its own plane but in the meantime there are plans to conduct future air patrol mission, including one over Sunrise Highway in the near future, with Bergen County’s help.
Bergen County lent them the plane? nice of them. i wonder if i can borrow it some weekend.
@ Alberston resident
You are mistaken. Once it is known what routes are being patrolled, drivers will either risk it or find alternative routes which will likely be uch less safe given this type of driving.
You should see how the racers block the road now on Ocean Parkway so that the police can’t catch them.
This is not the answer. It is however going to open the door for other abuses by the government.
Why are people such as you so willing to trade OUR liberty for YOUR comfort?
This isn’t going to stop reckless driving. All it will do is increase the current police state.
Just some idea cooked up by the cops so that a few of them can have fun playing around with a plane. Nice waste of taxpayer dollars.
This is a great idea, and there is nothing ‘big brother’ish about this. There are ALREADY police on the highways, using a small plane obviously isn’t any intrusion on our rights; its the morons who drive recklessly and drive drunk that are the intrusion. As far as cost, this program, i read in another article, cost Suffolk nothing, it was paid for by, I forget who exactly but a town in yonkers, westchester, something like that, but not suffolk or Long Island.
““This aerial enforcement technology will enable us to spot these drivers quickly and get them off our roads,” said Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco.”
Horsecrap.
Just one more way that this nation is becoming a police state.
One more way for them to limit your life, take your money and hurt you.
So much for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
So let me get this straight… camera’s can’t do the job… they need to fly around in a plane?
What, the camera’s aren’t good enough? Replace them!
A plane is going to cost a fortune to fly and maintain.
I have to say, this Long Island Press story is right up their with News 12′s ‘reporting whats going on’ and ‘not reporting the obvious’.
While I disagree with stealth tactics, I also see the need to stop the extremely aggressive driving that exists on Long Island. Unfortunately the highways are the easy ones to catch the perps, but it’s the more secondary roads like Route 112 south of Sunrise or even route 27A through all the villages on the south shore, where the REALLY ugly driving takes place.