Maryland Police Use Helicopters To Hunt Speeders

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Better watch out!

If you live in or travel through Maryland, watch out. Police there are patrolling the highways using helicopters and they’ve caught multiple cars going well over 100 mph. This isn’t anything like the desolate desert highways in the western US where signs announce “speed patrolled by aircraft” yet there’s nothing in the sky. Instead, Maryland law enforcement means business.

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For example, on June 24 Anne Arundel County Police Department did a sweep for speeders on Route 10 using helicopters and ground units. The high-intensity speed enforcement effort began in the middle of the day. Both marked and unmarked police cars made 19 different traffic stops in just two and a half hours. They issued 24 citations and give warnings for what the department called in a press release “egregious speed violations.”

The Aviation Unit was able to clock multiple drivers pushing their cars well into the triple digits. At the top end of the speeding spectrum was a Mustang driver going 169 mph. We would like to know what kind of car they were doing that in, but police understandably don’t want to disclose that information when they’re focusing on scaring everyone straight.

It sounds like things have gotten out of control on some Maryland highways. While speeding was the focus of the latest sweep, police say they’ve not only had to respond to a number of crashes, aggressive driving in general is up. That seems to be the case in many parts of this country as well as in other nations. We’re sure there are plenty of burgeoning theories about why this might be, but most reasonable people should agree it’s a problem.

In that same press release, police warn they’re going to do more focused enforcement sweeps on different roadways. They’ll be concentrating not just on speeding and aggressive driving but also driver distraction and “occupant protection” which we would interpret as seatbelt use, but it might entail other things like kids strapped in approved seats. Police in Maryland are also asking citizens to report any careless or reckless driving.

Will this be enough to get people in Maryland driving better? We’ll see. Other law enforcement agencies around the country might be watching to see how this plays out.

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