I disagree with what happened at Lawrenceburg recently CDL issues, but what I'm hearing is that taxpayers are unhappy if police officers DON'T do their jobs AND they are unhappy if they DO their jobs! Where would our country be without POLICE OFFICERS?

We only get unhappy when we get caught. Other than that they do a good job. And Ty is right about Hamilton cty. and the concerts. It does not matter who you are. If you get caught your going to jail. Hey Ty didn't Kokomo use to do some of those checkpoints when the Verizon had concerts. I thought I read in the paper a couple of years or so ago when they arrested people on 31 on those nights. Or was it just a coincident.

I believe it was labled heavy drug interdiction, but there was no checkpoints. THey did the sign game for a bit, long story. Dont think it flys anymore, not sure though.

I will probably regret posting this but here goes. My nephew is a state trooper in Illinois. I doubt very much that there were troopers stationed every ten miles last weekend on major highways in Illinois. I was in Illinois for 3 days as I went to DuQuoin for the fair races and I also talked to my nephew. I personally saw 5 motorcycle troopers on Interstate 57 in a two mile stretch near Salem on Monday working hard. Other than that I didn't seen any. Not one patroling.

There were less than half the normal troopers assigned to the state fairs this year due to budgetary issues. The State of Illinois is hurting as the economy is much tighter there than in Indiana right now. Tax revenue is way down.

Ty is right on when you realize that federal money flows to the state, county and local level for certain types of enforcement. I also agree that you need to look at which legislators vote for some of these questionable laws in the first place. Don't blame the officiers who have to enforce them. They are just doing their job.

In my opinion Ohio is the worst as far as pulling people over needlessly. The last three times I have been pulled over, two of them have been in Ohio. One was for doing 66 in a 65 at 1:00 AM coming home from the races at Toledo. The other one was for a license plate light being out on my truck. It also was late night/early morning. The third one was in good old Hamilton County Indiana when I was pulled over on Interstate 69 for driving too close to the center line. Not over, just too close. That one was at 3:30 AM when I was returning home from taking my son to Bloomington, IN. You think that maybe the time of night had anything to do with it? No tickets written, not even a warning. They just stopped me to mention it.:O:

Sometimes you can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I go to a lot of races and drive home late many nights. I see police out working the major highways late at night and can only imagine that they are looking for drunk and or drugged up drivers. I would just mention to be smart and don't drink and drive. Be safe and don't put yourself in that regrettable situation.

A little off topic here but kind of a DOT question. We have a pop up camper and here in Wisconsin it is not required to have plates on it. Hard sided travel trailers need plates but why doesn't my pop up? Not complaining cause it saves me money but it is a pull behind camper. How is the law on pop up campers in the surrounding states of me?

a couple of years ago I was at the Iron Skillet(sp?) truck stop restaurant in New Point, Indiana having a bite to eat. There were a group of truckers sitting there talking about how terrible it is to drive through Ohio because of the "chicken sh!d" law enforcement (as they put it). Everyone of them, to a T, agreed that they hate it when their route takes them through Ohio and that they avoid going into Ohio whenever possible. I know there is an enormous amount of "revenue generation" going on in the greater Cincinnati area (especially on I-71). Radio station WLW700 even encourages people to call in when they go through, or see, "revenue generation traps", they'll then inform the drivers where this activity is going on.

Never been to the burg yet, but went to DuQuoin for the race and my son started keeping track of the troopers when we turned off I-57 onto the state road that leads to the fair. He counted 14 Illinois State Troopers in that 16 mile stretch. So on the way home Labor Day, he joked about breaking the "record" number on the the trip out to I-57. You guessed it, 16 troopers in 16 miles. We didn't count the cars on I-57 but I did see 6 motorcyles working out of a rest area with a speed trap. I guess they were earing that holiday pay.

Mark,

You were probably traveling either before or after a shift change at the fair. It is quite common to see numerous state troopers either coming to the fair or going back either to the hotel or home. There were far less troopers on duty at the fair this year compared to years past. A sign of the times I guess.

Mike,

You are right about your stops, it only takes reasonable suspicion to make a stop, not probable cause. So you getting close to the center line and then back away from it can designate a stop. Your time frame is also a big indicator, those stops are what I call fishing stops, mostly nothing but sometimes you catch the big one. A traffic stop is like throwing in a line, you never know what you'll snag. Active cops get complained on way more than the lazy ones remember that.

Keep them comming guys, I dont mind shedding light from my side for uncomfortable situations.

It doesn't matter Cecil, they screw the trucks whether they are speeding or not. It isn't uncommon to get a ticket in Ohio for going 57mph in a truck. I never went to Ohio with my truck and frankly don't care about anybody east of the Indiana line. I don't go to any races there either.