Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Radar Guns in Burlingame?

Burlingame police is waiting for a proposal to be reviewed in the city attorney's office, which would allow volunteers, trained by Burlingame police, to patrol the streets with radar guns and make sure drivers are driving at the correct speed. Police will conduct background checks on the volunteers in order to make sure that they are law-abiding citizens.
"Drivers who are caught speeding will have their license plate number written down, and receive a warning letter from the Police Department. Although there is no fine attached to the letter, the hope is that people will slow down when they know they are being clocked. "

How do you feel about this proposal? Do you agree or disagree with it?
Do you think it will make people drive slower?

http://www.examiner.com/a-1088301~Volunteers_may_patrol_with_radar_guns.html

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with the good intentions behind this proposal, but don't think that it will be very effective. I think that without any kind of penalty attached to it, most drivers won't care enough to actually make a serious difference.

natalie g said...

I don't think this idea would be very effective. Firstly, I don't know if that many people would actually volunteer their time to patrol speed limits, maybe if they were paid. Also, I don't know how much good a letter will do. The whole idea isn't that threatening, with volunteers and a letter in the mail. Maybe policemen should just do their jobs.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Jeff and Natalie. In my opinion, the warning letters would be nothing more than a nuisance. In addition, I think that the power given to the volunteers would be too prone to abuse--and it would cost even more money to try to prevent abuse (maybe I'm being a little too cynical?). Anyway, in the end, I feel like this is just a big waste of money.

robbie armstrong said...

I think the idea is there but it wont have a big impact. People speed now when they know that can be punished for it so why would them know that they wont get punished but could be caught easier going make them stop. It wont.