Eyes in the sky help law enforcement crack down on local roadways

July 13, 2007

By Hannah Guillaume/Frontiersman

MAT-SU -Speeding tickets fell from the sky last weekend.

Alaska State Troopers and Anchorage Police teamed up using aircraft to catch 324 lawbreakers on the roads the first week of July.

Troopers in the Mat Su area B Detachment issued 33 tickets to drivers violating the laws of the road from Hope Junction on the Seward Highway to Sutton on the Glenn Highway, said Megan Peters, troopers spokeswoman. About 227 tickets were issued from the Knik Bridge down to Portage.

Several collisions, including a resulting fatality and a DUI, occurred during the aerial enforcement, according to reports.

Peters said these did not occur in areas actively patrolled.

Peters said pilots complained the aerial enforcement was dull because of an advertising campaign that caused drivers to slow down the minute they saw an aircraft overhead.

Contact Hannah Guillaume at 352-2284 or hannahguillaume@yahoo.com.