At least for the last two days, there has been an unusual little trailer setup at the intersection of the Munford Drummonds, Quito Drummonds, and Richardsons Landing roads - some of you may know it as the site of Martha Millican's store in the small town of Drummonds.

It looks like a small portable generator cart, but has a tall mast (about 25 foot) and at the top of that mast is a flashing blue light. The trailer is owned and operated by the Tipton County Sherriffs Department, and a flashing light isn't all there is up there -

The trailer mounts a set of solar panels that continuously charge its batteries and presumably detect ambient light levels, because what else is up on that mast is a pair of beehive-like assemblies that contain VIDEO CAMERAS with which the county sherriffs are watching the intersection!

The purpose of this is obvious - for one thing they want to catch people who roll right through the intersection, or otherwise operate their vehicles unsafely. It is possible (I would have set it up that way) that the cameras are of a hi enough res to even see if you are wearing seatbelts or not. I can think of a host of violations that would be prosecutable with footage from these on-site cameras, and the first most people would know of it is when they got the summons(s) in the mail

This type of traffic violation evidence collection was piloted long ago in California, where cameras are permanently installed at problem intersections. The advantage here (or for some of us - the risk) is that the unit is portable, can be set up at remote locations, is self sustaining, and the video collected from it is INDEED admissable as evidence in a court of law.

~There ain't no way out of the ticket when you are right there on TV, is there?

So I thought I had better warn those of you who are down around my end of the state that it isn't just a pretty light you are seeing come up over the rise - it just might be your butt, and your new insurance rate that you are seeing!

Most people are savvy enough to spot a police car at the side of the road, but this is new and smaller, and I bet a whole lot of drivers with sloppy habits are not ready for it.


~Ciao,

Wolfie