"Traffic Initiative" = Quotas?

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
March 15, 2009

As readers know, I have written about ticket quotas at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. Actually, they don't have quotas, because quotas are illegal. So at MCSD they have "non-quota quotas", called Performance Standards.

Is there any chance that "performance standards" (quotas) have reached the Woodstock Police Department?

What is a traffic "initiative"?

In February officers were directed to target dangerous and aggressive drivers. That's good. What were the results? Well, two of the "dangerous and aggressive" drivers were ticketed for forgetting to signal right turns, when they were turning in demand right-turn lanes. We know this, because their Letters to the Editor were published in the Northwest Herald.

Where are some of the demand, right-turn lanes? Eastbound Calhoun Street at Route 47. Westbound Lake Avenue at Route 47. Eastbound Lake Avenue at Route 47.

In March the traffic "initiative" is against speeders. National and Illinois figures are quoted in the press release that can be read on the City's Police Department webpages. Can't find it? Go to www.woodstockil.gov; roll your mouse over City Departments and then Police and then Crime Stopper Cases/Press Releases/Crime Alerts; click on this last link. What's missing is the number of fatalities in Woodstock caused by speeders. How many did we have that has resulted in this crackdown on speeders?

And what is the tolerance being applied? Are officers allowing 10-over? Only 5-over? None over (zero-tolerance)? Yesterday I saw three police cars parked along Route 47, which I suspected were running radar. Only one was in a place likely to nab a speeder, and that was on southbound Route 47, south of U.S. 14, in the 40MPH zone before the lane-drop.