CALIFORNIA DRIVER GETS POLICE SUMMONS VIA AIR MAIL
San Jose, California (JFK+50) On December 20, 1922, the Associated Press reports traffic officer Robert Byers, flying in the San Jose area with an aviator friend yesterday, observed a speeding car on the highway below.
The officer, in no position to catch the speeder in a police car, had his pilot "swoop down" so he could drop a quickly completed summons in front of the vehicle.
The AP says the speeder, Mr. Dominic Biflore, "stopped and picked it up."
JFK+50 NOTE
Almost a century later, the Wisconsin State Patrol is engaging in speed enforcement from the air. Tahleel Mohiedin writes that last year in Edgerton, Wisconsin in a period of 4 hours "troopers (utilizing air surveillance) made 40 traffic stops" on cars moving at at an average speed of 91 mph on a posted 70 mph limit highway. The highest speed was clocked at 109 mph.
SOURCES
"'An expensive lesson': State Patrol catches speeders as fast as 109 mph in aerial enforcement," by Tahleel Mohiedin, Channel 3000, www.channel3000.com/
"Policeman In Air Detects Speeder, Drops Summons," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., December 20, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
