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21 citations
issued in police
stealth campaign

Police use unmarked cars to
encourage responsible driving;
one driver caught was
exceeding 100 mph

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By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

Police have issued 21 traffic citations and arrested one driver during the first two days of a campaign using unmarked cars to improve driving behavior on the freeway.

Capt. Bryan Wauke of the Traffic Division said yesterday that police conducted three operations on Monday and Tuesday on the H-1 freeway in Pearl City, Waianae and Kapolei.

They issued 12 speeding tickets: four for unsafe lane changes, one for driving without a license, four for driving without insurance, one for following too close and one for not having a child safety seat. One driver was arrested for driving under the influence.

In one instance, Wauke said, officers pulled over a driver who had been chasing another at more than 100 miles per hour. "He was cut off," Wauke said. "He was very upset."

Officers in unmarked cars drive the freeways for two to three hours at a time and call in solo bike officers when they observe unsafe behavior.

The uniformed officers pull the car over, then the observing officer writes the citation. The goal is to encourage drivers to be more responsible and self-regulate their driving behavior, even when there's not a marked police car in sight, and to lower collision and fatality rates.

Decoy cars haven't been effective because drivers tend to correct their behavior only when a marked police car is in sight, Wauke said. But with unmarked cars on the road, "the next person you cut off could be a police officer."

Because the operations last two to three hours, Wauke said they don't expect high numbers of citations immediately. While the unmarked cars will initially monitor the freeways, they are looking at expanding to surface streets, Wauke said.

The project will go on indefinitely. "As long as it works, we'll keep doing it," he said.