Second Safest City Blog

The Missouri Highway Patrol has decided to mark 142 of its unmarked vehicles because it will improve traffic safety. Missouri Highway Patrol Superintendent James Keathley said, “When the motoring public sees a trooper, they pay closer attention and improve their driving habits, making the roadways safer for everyone.”The Clarkstown Police should adopt a policy to mark its vehicles for enhanced public safety.  The benefits of having plain clothes officers performing traffic stops in “taxis” and other completely unassuming vehicles are dubious at best. Contrary to public efforts by Clarkstown Police that would lead us to believe our fleet of “taxis”, Honda Civics, and mayors from Spring Valley are contributing to enhanced safety, the inability of drivers to discriminate legitimate police officers from impersonators is obviously a serious issue, as has been learned numerous times in our area.

Notably, on December 21, a FedEx delivery truck was hijacked in Manhattan by a group of men who displayed fake badges and forced the driver to follow their instructions.  While being driven around for the next three hours, the driver said one of the men taunted him by saying, “I paid a couple hundred dollars for that badge. Did you think I was police?” Interestingly, the robbery was bungled when the crooks failed to open the specially designed aircraft flight case filled with goods, so they ditched the truck in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and let the driver go unharmed and even allowed him to keep enough of his own money to get home.