May 20
Seattle Police Use Dodge Chargers to Ticket Motorists
Last month, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that the Chief of the Seattle Police Department, with the blessing of the Mayor, will not hire another sergeant this year to investigate officer misconduct even though the City Council allocated $120,000 for that purpose. You can read the full story by clicking here. So why should you care? Because the Seattle Police Department is proud to instead have purchased 6 new Dodge Charger vehicles (sticker price to a consumer is $22,000 per car) with which the SPD is bent on stopping people who speed. Officer misconduct? No big deal according to the police. Speeding? Priority! Apparently, a regular patrol vehicle is not good enough anymore for the police to apprehend people. On May 4, 2007, the Seattle Times reported that one police officer is actually getting compliments on the new cars (did he get any compliments for ticketing people?). As a result of the creation of the SPD's new aggressive-driving squad, those who drive in Seattle should take notice that the new squad is looking for speeders. Specifically, the squad is looking for drivers who honk their horns (very aggressive), cut in and out of traffic, weave, and anyone who might be speeding. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of tax dollars spent on the new sports cars for police and the salaries for the new squad's members, the SPD spent a mere $5,000 on marketing material to let the public know about the squad. But it's not only Seattle. Redmond and Monroe police, as well as the Washington State Patrol, are also using Dodge Chargers to apprehend those who are speeding. As the weather gets warmer, there are often more drivers and police on the roadways, and as the police need to justify the cost of spending your tax dollars on these expensive cars, expect to see a lot of people being issued speeding tickets.
