Ill. State Police - New Driving Rules

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
November 22, 2008

On Friday the Illinois State Police issued new, more restrictive driving rules for its troopers. These changes come one year after a trooper lost control of his car at 126MPH, while responding on an emergency call near Collinsville, Ill. The trooper crossed the median and hit a car, killing two sisters.

Basically, these are the new rules:
1. Specific criteria for call responses. No more free-for-all. And it sounds like troopers might even be expected to obey speed limits for Level One responses. What a novel idea.
2. Troopers must use hands-free cell phones.
3. Troopers are not to operate technology during emergency calls (in-car computers, texting equipment, cell phones).
4. In-car video-cameras are not to be turned off during emergency responses.

You can read the news release at http://isp.state.il.us/media/pressdetails.cfm?ID=452

For the trooper performing his duty in a lawful manner, these rules won't be a problem at all.

We could use these same rules in McHenry County. Will the sheriff and police chiefs be forward-thinking enough to follow Director Trent's lead and implement similar rules without a lot of arm-twisting by the public?