# Does your city use traffic cops regularly?



## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

Found this article in the Chicago Tribune today. Just wondering if traffic cops were a regular sight in your cities, and in what parts of the world they're most prevelent. They sit on the corners screaming in Chicago every morning and night....

_Traffic cops? Or traffic aides?
Officials can't agree who should enforce laws on city streets 

Published August 21, 2006_

*Chicago is embroiled in debate over whether to hire additional police officers to enforce traffic laws, transfer more of the responsibility to civilian traffic-control aides or, as some cities do, simply let drivers and pedestrians duke it out on the streets.*

The struggle over which way to proceed comes amid worsening traffic congestion in the downtown and a spree of deadly hit-and-run accidents across the city this summer.

Some aldermen are questioning whether the traffic-control aides, who are not police officers, receive adequate training and are capable of doing their job. But other city officials, led by Mayor Richard Daley, are wary of replacing the aides with police officers because, they argue, the officers are needed to fight crime.

"When I first became an alderman, there was a police traffic officer on every block of Michigan Avenue, and it was like having a police station on each corner," said Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd). "The drivers in this town are not obeying the orders of these traffic aides, and until they do we are not going to get anywhere."

*The traffic-control aides, meanwhile, complain that drivers--and pedestrians especially--ignore their authority. They say the problem got worse when the city ordered them to switch uniforms, from police officer uniforms to blue polo-style shirts, lime vests and navy pants and caps.*

"We are harassed and disrespected every day because of these uniforms," said Kathleen Sanchez, who was a Police Department crossing guard for nine years before becoming a traffic-control aide three years ago. "People swear and laugh at you. You had respect when you wore a police officer uniform."

Attention to what Ald. Thomas Allen (38th) has called Chicagoans' Wild West driving mentality became sharply focused after a hit-and-run driver struck and killed a 4-year-old girl, Maya Hirsch, who was walking with her family near Lincoln Park Zoo in May.

*Allen says Chicago is home to some of the worst driving in the United States. He cited an Allstate Insurance Co. study released this year showing that drivers in Chicago are 33 percent more likely to get into accidents than drivers in most places across the nation. The study ranked Chicago 178 out of 200 cities for safe driving.*

*The City Council subsequently passed an ordinance that Allen proposed to hire 100 more police officers to handle traffic duties citywide, using fines collected from drivers running red traffic lights, who were caught by cameras. 

Only 32 police officers are on the traffic detail currently, and mostly downtown, Allen said. The 100 new police officers would cost the city about $7.5 million a year, officials said.*

Daley is balking, however. Daley accuses aldermen--including former Chicago police officer William Beavers (7th), who has said traffic enforcement is as important to public safety as fighting crime--of overstepping their authority about how the administration budgets city resources.

Daley said he thinks more police officers are needed to catch drug dealers and other criminals in the neighborhoods instead of blowing whistles on street corners. The matter of hiring more police officers to handle traffic problems is still under review, said police department spokeswoman Monique Bond.

Non-sworn officers were assigned to the traffic division of the Chicago Police Department from 1978 until this year, when they were transferred to the Traffic Management Authority, which falls under the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

"It makes more sense this way. It is more efficient and cost-effective," said Kevin Smith, spokesman for the Traffic Management Authority.

*The Traffic Management Authority plans to hire 300 more part-time traffic-control aides, who direct traffic in the central business district, at special events and on the alternate routes recommended during the Dan Ryan Expressway reconstruction project.

About 127 full-time and 560 part-time traffic-control aides are on the city payroll. When not directing traffic, mainly during rush periods, the aides are assigned to write parking tickets. They do not have the authority to ticket drivers for moving violations.*

*The annual salary of full-time traffic-control aides ranges from $32,000 to $52,000,* according to the traffic authority. Part-time traffic aides receive $15.59 an hour. Both full-time traffic aides and part-timers receive 40 hours of training at the Chicago Police Department training academy.

*The salary, benefits and equipment for one police officer exceeds $100,000 * a year, raising the issue of whether using police for traffic control is warranted, some experts say.

"The demeanor of the traffic aides and their ability to take charge are as important as which uniform they wear," said Alexander Weiss, director of the Center for Public Safety at Northwestern University, adding that even police officers say their directions are not always obeyed.

"Some traffic aides appear to be bystanders, like a flagger working at a construction site. It can actually make the situation at intersections worse," said Weiss, a former traffic sergeant in Colorado Springs.

Indeed, some traffic control aides appear to imitate scarecrows. They have at times been spotted by police surveillance cameras ducking under a building awning to take an unauthorized break or to get out of the rain, officials say.

But a walk around the downtown area supports the view that many traffic aides do work hard. They maximize the effectiveness of traffic signals rather than mimicking the red and green lights.

They seem to anticipate the signal timing cycles, facilitating left turns and clearing vehicles from intersections before traffic lights change.

"Whatever it takes to get the people to stop and get the traffic moving in the other direction, I am going to do it," said Michelle DiCola, who has been a full-time traffic aide for three years. "I cannot promise that you are going to make every green light, but the main thing is not to let traffic back up into somebody else's intersection. If that happens, you've got 100 pedestrians trying to cross the street in front of and behind vehicles."

*Two traffic-control aides each working their part of an intersection--their backs turned to each other but operating in sync as they wave vehicles and pedestrians through--can be as beautifully choreographed as a ballet.

"You get a clock in your head after awhile. You know when to hold the cars without even looking at the crosswalk lights," said Naureen Cooney, acting superintendent of the Traffic Management Authority.*

Responding to complaints about drivers and pedestrians from traffic aides, Cooney said: "People are going to do what they want to do. I tell the aides to be firm in your orders, but if people don't listen to you there is no point in arguing or chasing them down."

The traffic authority is considering a change in uniforms, possibly to white shirts with a City of Chicago patch.

"The old uniforms looked like police, so people didn't know if we were the police or not and they really didn't question our authority as much," Cooney said.

Weiss said traffic aides who are uncomfortable about their ability to do their job may be using the uniforms as an excuse.

The bottom line is that it is an extremely difficult challenge to force people to obey traffic laws.

"Almost everybody speeds almost all the time," Weiss said. "Our criminal justice system is not designed to deal with problems in which everybody breaks the law."

It is why some cities have reined in the deployment of traffic cops and traffic-control aides, relying instead on traffic signals and other devices.

"A number of cities don't have anyone directing traffic. It wouldn't be bad to take a step back and let existing technology handle it," Weiss said.

Here is where most of the traffic cops(aides) are located:


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## jamesinclair (Mar 21, 2006)

Traffic police are usually found in areas where the city has money to burn. In Brasil for example, the only police on the street are military police, and the only time they really mess with traffic is when they set out a roadblock to catch drunk drivers. Small issues like speeding and crossing redlights is all administered by cameras.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Too much, actually...


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## I-275westcoastfl (Feb 15, 2005)

Yup they find a good hiding place and catch speeders.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

The police in that article aren't even really police, they're hired traffic aides. They can't make any citations for moving violations. They are there to sit in the middle of the busy intersections and try and manage pedestrians/bikes/busses/cars


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## ChicagoSkyline (Feb 24, 2005)

Yea, For Chicago DT, the traffic cops are regularly in major intersections during rush hours or special events! :runaway:


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Chicagoago said:


> The police in that article aren't even really police, they're hired traffic aides. They can't make any citations for moving violations. They are there to sit in the middle of the busy intersections and try and manage pedestrians/bikes/busses/cars



Oh those...

The city does a few, not that much...mostly downtown.


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## ChicagoSkyline (Feb 24, 2005)

Chicagoago said:


> The police in that article aren't even really police, they're hired traffic aides. They can't make any citations for moving violations. They are there to sit in the middle of the busy intersections and try and manage pedestrians/bikes/busses/cars


Not really, some of them threaten me with ticketing and tell me to leave where I was parking eventho, it has nothing to do with their patrol in the intersection! :runaway: :eek2:


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