Red light district

Sunday, March 11, 2007

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Go behind the scenes with Largo police officers as they conduct a red-light running detail.

By Joe Wisinski
Bay News 9 Web Staff

Out of sight behind a bridge pillar, Largo Police Department Officer Steve Field watches as 18 cars ease through a green light at U.S. 19 and East Bay Drive.

The light turns red, but one more car slips through the intersection.

"White Toyota Corolla, lane 1," Field announces into his radio mike.

Largo police officers wait to issue tickets to drivers running the red light at U.S. 19 and East Bay Drive.

That's what Police Sgt. Tim Block is waiting to hear. Block stomps on his cruiser's gas, swings out from behind a shopping center sign and tails the Corolla.

"You've got him," Field tells Block.

When Block hits his siren and lights, the Corolla pulls into a parking lot.

"Do you know why I stopped you?" Block asks the young man behind the wheel.

"Because I ran the light like a dumb***," comes the reply.

"Are you in a hurry?" Block wants to know.

"No, I'm on my way home from work. I had a bad day."

The driver's bad day is about to get worse. Block writes him a ticket for running the red light.

No see ums

On this Wednesday afternoon, six Largo police officers are working a red light running detail. Their methodology is simple and effective.

About 3:30 that afternoon, Field stationed himself under the U.S. 19 overpass, out of sight behind a pillar. Five officers in chase cars wait behind an Office Depot sign near the Tri-City Plaza. They, too, are unobservable to westbound drivers on East Bay.

Officer Steve Field is inside the red circle. Click on the graphic for a larger image.

As Field spots cars running the red light, he relays descriptions of those vehicles to the chase cars.

The officers pull the violators over, run routine checks on their car tags and driver's licenses, and issue tickets. They then get back in line to repeat the process.

The five chase cars stay busier than one-armed paper hangers. Never do the officers need to wait more than a few minutes after issuing a ticket before pursuing the next violator. Often two of them swing into action simultaneously, as two cars run the same light.

After Block issues his third ticket of the afternoon, he radios Field to say he's back behind the sign.

"No, you're not," Field replies. "Gray Nissan Quest."

Block takes off again and issues ticket number four to the elderly woman driving the Quest.

Ouch, that hurts

The fine for running a red light in Florida is a whopping $179.50 - far more than the average Floridian earns in a day.

"It's an expensive ticket," Block says. "But don't run the red light."

Largo police Sgt. Tim Block issues a ticket to a red light runner, one of nine tickets he issued in three hours.

How does Field decide which drivers will get their wallets lightened?

Block explains that drivers are supposed to stop for red lights at the white line at the edge of the intersection. If they're before that line when the light turns red and go through anyway, they're in violation. When Field radios the chase cars he tells them how far the driver was before the white line, in car lengths, when the light turned red.

The red light running champion on this afternoon: a green Dodge Neon that was five car lengths behind the white line, but still ran the light.

Other cases that result in Field telling his colleagues to cut to the chase:

A red Honda Si stops at a green light because traffic is backed up, but when traffic clears and the light turns red, he drives through it.

The driver of a white Chevrolet Cavalier almost stops -- Field says she slows down to about 3 mph -- but then elects to drive through the light.

The officers give no warnings nor leeway to red light runners.

"If you run it, you run it," Block says.

Plenty of business

For the six officers, all of whom are on overtime, it's an afternoon well spent.

They stop 38 vehicles and issue 36 tickets for red light violations, along with three tickets for driver's license violations.

Two drivers receive citations for expired tags and two for other non-moving violations.

More Information
	Click here for a map showing how the detail worked. Click here for statistics about the problem of the red light running problem nationwide. Click here for Bay News 9 stories on using cameras to reduce red light running. Click here for more information about the tickets Block wrote.

One driver receives a ticket for violating the right of way of an emergency vehicle when he fails to move aside for a cruiser with its emergency lights on.

The grand total: 44 citations.

The total could have been greater. While Block issues ticket number five, to the Honda driver, his radio crackles.

"A white Buick," Field says. "Any takers?"

No response. All five officers are already busy issuing tickets, and the driver of the white Buick blissfully drives on, not knowing that by sheer luck he just saved $179.50. The same scenario repeats itself at least twice more that afternoon.

Still, by the end of the day, Block makes eight stops and issues nine tickets, including one for no insurance issued to the young man in the Honda.

"A productive afternoon," he says.

Unhappy campers

The red light runners might not agree with that assessment.

"She was not happy," Block says of the driver of the Quest. "They're the ones who made a mistake, but they take it out on you."

Many drivers offer Block an excuse.

Contact the Reporter
	Click here to send an e-mail to Bay News 9 web writer/editor Joe Wisinski.

"I was just following traffic" is the most common. "I thought the light was yellow," the driver of the Honda says. And a middle-age man towing a trailer says, "With that trailer behind me I didn't think I could stop."

An older woman driving a blue Ford Taurus vows to not let the matter drop.

"I was just going with the traffic," she says. "Just give me the ticket and I'll see you in court."

Block's not worried. He says a driver he ticketed during a previous detail also fought the citation in court. The driver lost.

Do they make a difference?

Do red light running details make Bay area roads safer? Block says he thinks so, but there's no way to tell for sure.

Reporter's Notebook

After the red light running detail, Officer Block dropped me off at the Largo Police Station. As I got in my car, I idly wondered how soon I would see another driver running a red light.

It took about 10 seconds. There's a stoplight at the entrance to the station parking lot. The light was red for me as I pulled up to it, but soon turned green.

I watched as a young woman in a dark blue Toyota SR5 heading south on Highland Avenue barreled through the red light -- right in front of the police station.

"I could be saving a life with what I'm doing right now," he says. "I would never know."

Some residents, however, apparently believe the operation is valuable. Within the first hour of the detail, four people approached one of Block's colleagues, Officer Ann Starling, and thanked her for what she was doing.

Even a ticketed driver grudgingly praises the officers. "I won't say thank you," the driver of a Chevrolet Tahoe tells Block. "But you guys are doing a great job."

But some drivers apparently never learn. The young driver of the white Corolla had numerous prior tickets. He's currently making payments on a ticket for driving with a suspended license.

"Sooner or later you're going to have to change your driving behavior," Block tells him. "You're eventually going to cream somebody."