High-Tech Police Cars Target Careless Drivers New 4-Member Police Care Team Will Try To Reduce Coeur D’Alene’s High Accident Rate

Emily Phillips knew she’d been caught.

“I was going too fast,” the 16-year-old said, a frown creasing her face as she sat slumped in her station wagon. “I deserve to get a ticket.”

Parked behind her in his brandnew patrol car, officer Randy Miller prepared to do just that.

And the ticket was a doozy - $102 for going 50 mph in a 25 mph zone.

“That’s a real hazardous violation there,” the Coeur d’Alene police officer said Tuesday, explaining that 50 mph in a neighborhood endangers children playing there.

Miller is the first officer to hit the road in a new high-tech police car designed to cut down on traffic accidents and violations.

Loaded with a laptop computer, video camera, miniature television monitor and a top-of-the-line laser gun to measure speed, police hope this and three other cars like it will help officers reduce accidents by 10 percent.

It’s all part of a new program called CARE Community Accident Reduction through Education - made up of four officers, each responsible for one quadrant of the city.

The CARE team has an uphill battle to reach its goal.

In 1993, the city’s 273 injury accidents made it the second-most accident-prone city in all of Idaho, according to the Idaho Transportation Department.

Last year, the number of injury accidents had grown to 306 - a 35 percent increase from 1991.

The program also had difficulty getting started on time. The CARE team expected to have its new patrol cars months ago, but the vehicle manufacturer had failed to make the new cars.

The department finally located four new Ford Crown Victorias in Texas.

Miller’s car was the first to hit the road last week. Lt. Ron Hotchkiss, head of the program, expects the second car to be available Friday and hopes the final two will be in use by the end of next week.

Hotchkiss said the cars cost $19,400 each. The city paid for the cars, but federal grants administered through the state will pay for hiring the CARE officers the first year $250,468 - as well as provide $23,000 for new radar and laser equipment.

Miller spent Tuesday roaming the southeast side of town in his new car.

Every ticket and warning CARE officers give drivers is recorded on the laptop computer, allowing officers to track drivers’ records.

Using a cutting-edge laser gun, Miller monitored cars rounding a curve on Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive. It will allow him to check speeds accurately from almost a mile away.

On Harrison, Miller aimed a new hand-held radar gun, clocking driver John Herzog going 42 mph in the street’s 25 mph zone.

“I didn’t even know I was going that fast,” Herzog told Miller as the officer wrote out a ticket.

“What we’re trying to do is reduce the high number of accidents in Coeur d’Alene … and speeding is a major factor in that,” Miller told the Coeur d’Alene man.

Herzog said he thinks the program is a good idea, especially with all the children running around during the summer. He said the ticket will probably remind him to go slower but admitted “only for about two days.”

In the past, programs similar to CARE have been canned because of public outcry over ticket-happy cops.

But Lt. Hotchkiss says the CARE team hopes to reduce accidents as much through education as it does through enforcement.

“We’re not looking to generate revenue, all we want to do is cut the accidents down,” he said.

On Tuesday, Miller clocked a couple from Spokane speeding down 15th Street. He only gave them a warning after explaining to them the city’s accident problems and the speed limit in the area.

Miller has talked to drivers’ education classes and reminded local retailers to check the age of people buying alcohol in an effort to cut down on drunken driving accidents.

Any groups or businesses wanting the CARE officers to speak to them about traffic safety or other issues can call 769-CARE, Hotchkiss said.

The four CARE officers will patrol the city streets during the Fourth of July weekend, Hotchkiss said. They will especially focus on drunken drivers Monday and Tuesday nights.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo; Graphic: Coeur d’Alene’s injury accidents