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Undercover OP for The Highway Patrol in Alabama

Aired September 01, 2003 - 13:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, here's something to make you a little paranoid behind the wheel. Next time you drive by a construction site, well, that guy in the hard hat and the sweaty tee might be clocking you. That's because the Man is getting crafty going after speeders, especially in Alabama.
Our Eric Philips explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He looks like the average construction worker, perhaps doing a survey.

CPL. DARRYL HALL, ALABAMA STATE POLICE: Got a Ford Expedition, green in color, 74 miles per hour.

PHILIPS: But in reality, this is Corporal Darryl Hall with the Alabama State Police. He's tracking motorists along this stretch of I-20 near Birmingham, known as Death Valley because of the many traffic fatalities. With a LIDAR, or light-detecting and ranging device, he clocks speeders in this construction zone and then radios waiting squad cars. All part of a program called Operation Hard Hat.

HALL: It gives me the ability to get a car that's in a crowd that's speeding, the one that the marked car normally don't get.

PHILIPS (on camera): Authorities say LIDAR is even more effective than radar for target identification because it uses a laser. In other words, they say, LIDAR it doesn't lie.

(voice-over): The trooper's clothing and the detection device are meant to blend in with construction crews. In just a couple of hours, we saw more than a dozen stops.

But critics say speed traps like this one miss the mark.

JIM BAXTER, NATIONAL MOTORISTS ASSOCIATION: Motorists are being exploited primarily for revenue purposes, rather than for traffic safety reasons.

MAYOR JAMES WHITFIELD, LEEDS, ALABAMA: It's not an approach to write more citations, it's an approach to save lives.

PHILIPS: Local officials say more than 40 people have died on this highway in the past two years, so they welcome anything that might help.

Near Birmingham, Alabama, Eric Philips, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 1, 2003 - 13:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, here's something to make you a little paranoid behind the wheel. Next time you drive by a construction site, well, that guy in the hard hat and the sweaty tee might be clocking you. That's because the Man is getting crafty going after speeders, especially in Alabama.
Our Eric Philips explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He looks like the average construction worker, perhaps doing a survey.

CPL. DARRYL HALL, ALABAMA STATE POLICE: Got a Ford Expedition, green in color, 74 miles per hour.

PHILIPS: But in reality, this is Corporal Darryl Hall with the Alabama State Police. He's tracking motorists along this stretch of I-20 near Birmingham, known as Death Valley because of the many traffic fatalities. With a LIDAR, or light-detecting and ranging device, he clocks speeders in this construction zone and then radios waiting squad cars. All part of a program called Operation Hard Hat.

HALL: It gives me the ability to get a car that's in a crowd that's speeding, the one that the marked car normally don't get.

PHILIPS (on camera): Authorities say LIDAR is even more effective than radar for target identification because it uses a laser. In other words, they say, LIDAR it doesn't lie.

(voice-over): The trooper's clothing and the detection device are meant to blend in with construction crews. In just a couple of hours, we saw more than a dozen stops.

But critics say speed traps like this one miss the mark.

JIM BAXTER, NATIONAL MOTORISTS ASSOCIATION: Motorists are being exploited primarily for revenue purposes, rather than for traffic safety reasons.

MAYOR JAMES WHITFIELD, LEEDS, ALABAMA: It's not an approach to write more citations, it's an approach to save lives.

PHILIPS: Local officials say more than 40 people have died on this highway in the past two years, so they welcome anything that might help.

Near Birmingham, Alabama, Eric Philips, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com