Standing on a freeway overpass above the steady stream of midmorning traffic, Vancouver police Cpl. Robert Schoene looked for bad drivers.
On a recent rainy day, he surveyed the freeway until he found a possible violator. He raised his laser gun and pointed it at the car. Click. A number appeared across the back of his gun.
He lifted it again and pointed it at a second car. Click.
Bingo.
The gadget just performed what normally would be a cop’s guesstimate. It calculated that a passing car was traveling 89 feet, or 1.5 seconds, behind a pickup on Interstate 5 — and was, therefore, following too closely.
“It takes the subjective out of it,” Schoene says about his handheld partner. “There’s no longer a guess.”
Schoene and other officers at the Vancouver Police Department are part of the first agency in Washington to acquire this new device that can measure whether motorists are tailgating — the third leading cause of the state’s traffic collisions. And they are now able to write tickets that will stand up in court.
Vancouver was one of the first agencies in the country to use the technology. The first, the Clackamas County, Ore. Sheriff’s Office, started using the device several years ago.
Called a “DBC,” or the Distance-Between-Cars mode of a laser gun, it was created by the Colorado-based company Laser Technology to give police officers a sure-fire way to catch not only speeders, but also tailgaters. Without objective evidence, a following-too-close case can become a “he-said, she-said” debate between the driver and the officer.
“We strongly suspect that (following too closely) is underreported in Washington state crashes,” said Dick Doane, a research investigator for the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission. “Historically, a number of courts and judges have thrown out such infractions because, in their view, police allegations of such behavior have rested almost entirely on subjective evidence.”
That is, until now.
Paul Adkins, a spokesman for Laser Technology, said the patented device has been sold internationally for years, but only emerged in the United States under a pilot program with Clackamas County. It has become successful there and judges have become familiar with it.
“It’s widely used technology in Australia and Austria,” Adkins said. It’s been slow to take off here “because it’s not traditional here and judges didn’t know about it.”
Little-used tool
VPD officers received training in handling the gun in Fall 2007 from a Clackamas sheriff’s sergeant. Schoene had contacted the agency for training after hearing about its success.
Problem is, Vancouver disbanded its traffic enforcement unit soon after the new gadget was received and officers haven’t used it much since.
The situation illustrates some of the tough choices facing police as they deal with constrained budgets and increased demand in areas such as gang enforcement and automobile theft investigation.
Faced with a $2.3 million revenue shortfall to maintain programs during the 2009-2010 biennium, five of the unit’s motorcycle officers were reassigned to patrol duties.
The remaining traffic officers now focus on violations where the most complaints are generated, Schoene said, such as speeding in school zones and neighborhood speeding.
But that doesn’t mean that Schoene doesn’t see the value of the DBC gadget. Though he says most of the vehicle collisions he handles are caused by speeding, following too closely is a likely second.
And he thinks it’s a problem that most drivers are unaware of. Contrary to popular belief, vehicles traveling at highway speeds are expected to stay four seconds behind another car, especially when it’s raining or snowing.
The state’s driving manual tells drivers to keep a two-second distance, which Schoene said is reasonable at slower speeds.
Schoene only writes tickets when drivers are found to be closer than 1.5 seconds. He sees the device, instead, as a way to increase public awareness about tailgating.
Quick calculation
Following too closely is calculated by taking into account the speed of both cars and distance between each in feet. For example, it may be safe for a vehicle traveling 30 mph to be driving less than 80 feet behind a car — but not if the vehicle is going 70 mph.
The DBC quickly makes that calculation.
How it works: Schoene either stands at the side of a road or on an overpass to have a clear view. Freeways are prime spots.
He points the gun at a car’s front bumper to measure the speed and then points it at the second car’s bumper to measure the distance and that car’s speed. Nearly instantly, the device can provide Schoene a timed distance.
A second officer parked on the side of the road activates the patrol car’s lights and stops the offender, explaining that the gun has caught the driver in the act.
“Generally, most people are surprised,” Schoene said. “Most people’s reaction is, ‘I wasn’t following too close.’”
Over the first few months of 2008, traffic officers wrote a few $124 tickets with the gadget, Schoene said. An exact number wasn’t available.
Schoene expects it to become a valuable tool in catching many more violators once the police department has proper staffing to use it.
It’s paid off for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. The agency’s traffic deputies now use the DBC on daily patrols and write all of their following too closely tickets from it, said Clackamas County sheriff’s Sgt. John Naccarato, supervisor of the agency’s traffic unit.
Their hot spots are construction zones and high-speed areas.
About implementing the device, Naccarato said, “I knew our No. 1 crash cause factor was following too closely, and I was looking for innovative ways to combat the problem.”
Will other Clark County law enforcement agencies start using DBCs? It’s unclear.
Washington State Patrol Trooper Steve Schatzel said the device has yet to be acquired statewide among troopers because of a lack of money.
“We’re being asked to cut back, not spend more,” he said.
The device cost Vancouver $3,600, a tab covered by a Washington Traffic Safety Commission grant for school zone enforcement. To receive the grant, officers agreed to use the device, in part, for school zone speeding enforcement.
Clark County Sheriff’s deputies say they are focused on deterring speeders.
“Generally, we’re more concerned simply with getting people to slow down,” said Clark County sheriff’s Detective Alex Schoening.
Naccarato hopes these Clark County law enforcement agencies will see the technology’s value.
“It’s been accepted as scientific evidence here in Oregon,” he said. “It’s led to an increase in citations. It takes a lot of the subjectivity out of it, and it validates what we see.”
Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.
