Whatever happened to traffic tickets?

by Jack Stapleton, Jr.

Since the 1930s I have been a long-time admirer of the men, and in recent years the women, who make up the Missouri Highway Patrol. They are, in my estimation, not only excellently trained law enforcement officers but almost all of them possess personalities that would withstand any political campaign.

The first state troopers I knew were two Patrol pioneers who in the mid 1930s were stationed in Northwest Missouri. By virtue of their records and abilities, they were elevated eventually to top positions in their department. The officers were David Harrison, who eventually became superintendent of the SHP, and Bob Walker, who would become a troop commander in St. Joseph.

Harrison and Walker were among the first selected after the state created the Patrol in 1931. As you might conclude, their duties were primarily focused on traffic control, speed limits and drunken driving scofflaws. When I mention this fact, people stare at me as if I were crazed. But most early troopers carried out their assignments on motorcycles rather than enclosed autos. Think about it, how effective would any officer be if he were driving a Model T Ford in pursuit of a bank robber traveling in a souped-up Packard or Chrysler?

Part of my admiration for the Patrol is the result of imagining what it must have been like driving on a Northwest Missouri highway in the dead of winter on an open-air Hog. Summertime wasn’t so bad, if you don’t mind bugs pelting your face. But zero weather is nothing less than murder alfresco, as any Alaskan cyclist will tell you. I never heard either man complain, which should be adequate proof our early troopers were exceptional human beings.

Eventually my acquaintance with SHP members broadened. As both a high school student and a string reporter for The Associated Press and a Kansas City metro newspaper, I witnessed a couple of disturbing events that were disarming, to say the least, as troopers questioned suspects within the hidden confines of sheriffs’ offices. I won’t go into details, but if the residents of New York or Cincinnati or Los Angeles ever witnessed a closed-door police beating, they’d be rioting 24/7. It wasn’t pleasant, to coin an understatement. Given the growth of modern human rights advocates, I doubt if it’s prevalent now.

What is going on today, however, is a disappearing act of law enforcement officers on today’s major, and minor, highways. The highest priority of the Highway Patrol when it was founded in the early 1930s was traffic law enforcement, designed to prevent accidents and save lives. Given the unbelievable increase in auto and truck traffic over the past seven decades, the challenge of the Patrol is a hundred-fold greater. From an era when 50 miles an hour was considered excessive speed to today’s traffic patterns is like comparing apples and oranges or a Model T Ford to today’s souped-up 10-miles-to-the-gallon boxcar models.

As one who over the past decade has made a 180-mile-long round-trip crowded Interstate highway journey from home to campus twice a week, I can speak with some authority when I note that I observe virtually no law enforcement on Missouri’s roads and highways these days. As one who has literally been blown off the highways by semi-trailers traveling 80 or 90 miles an hour, as one who has been honked at, fingered to and literally threatened with outrageous acts of rage by out-of-control drivers who were under the impression they held title to the passing lane, I’m ready for some highway sanity.

I have lost count of how many times I have wished for a Highway Patrol car on I-55, but the number would be considerably higher than Regis Philbin’s IQ. Without the threat of arrest, too many motorists ignore the official limit of 70 MPH and I have even experimented by purposely slowing my car to 60 to see how many cars I would pass. The score: nada.

I know troopers are busy with other assignments, including drug interdictions. But when did it become state policy to ignore speeding cars and trucks? When did Missouri decide to expand the Patrol’s duties to such an extent that its officers disappeared from our crowded highway speedways?

I guess legislators, immune from tickets, haven’t been passed by motorists doing 85 MPH.

[Missouri News & Editorial Service, Inc. Copyright (C) 2001 MNES Corp.]