I skimmed this story on Politics Philly, and immediately thought “bullshit” as far as the rationale for the change:
“The controversial move is expected to save the city $5.6 million. Replacing the city officers with state officers is being done instead of a plan that was floated to reimburse the city for the costs of patrolling the highways themselves.”
There’s a long standing belief that state (constitution) legislators don’t allow the City of Philadelphia municipalities to use cruiser mounted radar to enforce speeds. There’s legislation in the PA House and Senate that allows municipalities to operate radar, but only for traffic safety, and revenues cannot exceed 5% of their budget I’m certain that municipalities that allow the State Police to patrol their interstates and highways get a taste of any fined recouped from speed enforcement, and I’d further wager that the revenue will outstrip the $5.6m in saving from discontinuing PPD patrols. There’s an interesting discussion on this at the Domelight Forums.
