From Des MOines Register 7/27/2001

DAVENPORT Focus of crackdown is U.S. Highway 61

Drivers traveling 190 miles of U.S. Highway 61 between Keokuk and Dubuque today will face more than 120 officers from 18 state, county and city agencies who'll be ticketing speeders, drunk and reckless drivers, and those not buckled in.

"We'll be going at it all day," said Iowa State Patrol Lt. Frank Fisher. Laser radar equipment will be used, he said. Police aircraft will be in the air.

"There will not be any roadblocks," he said. "These will be rolling stops."

Although there are hot spots that have attracted attention in recent years because of the number of wrecks and traffic deaths - such as the section of U.S. 61 from Blue Grass to Muscatine - no particular area will be targeted, he said.

Highway 61 "is our deadliest roadway within the city, without a doubt," Davenport police Capt. David Struckman said. "What we're trying to do is increase both awareness and voluntary compliance of the laws."

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2001

Answers

Here are the results of this mess. This type of operation pisses me off.

DUBUQUE

Hundreds are ticketed in U.S. 61 operation

Authorities ticketed more than 1,400 motorists for traffic violations during a crackdown along U.S. Highway 61 in eastern Iowa over the weekend.

The Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau led the effort between Keokuk and Dubuque. More than 120 city, county and state police officers were involved.

Officials wrote 660 speeding tickets and 361 seat-belt violations, officials said. There was one felony arrest and one accident. Five people were arrested on drug charges.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Agree with you, Beckie. I detest operations like that. I call them "Bearing Feeding Parties."

Here in Ohio, we can also count on at least two (and usually more) of them going on during major holidaze along I-75 and I-70. I had the misfortune of being stopped in one during a Memorial weekend and was held up for almost 45 minutes because their computer wasn't working right. When I borrowed a cell phone to call my attorney, they let me leave, but an officer followed me about 50 miles (I don't think it was coincidence). I later reported this incident to various officials and haven't driven out of town on major roads since.

I'm waiting for someone to legally challenge these operations. So far, the challenges have been thrown out of court here.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

At one time the Supreme Court (late '60's or '70's) had ruled that arbitary roadblocks were illegal and somehow in the past few years the courts have reversed that again.

The highway patrol and other law enforcement agencies are complaining about cost overruns because of the cost of fuel and then they do garbage like this. You know that it is just to pad their budgets.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001