Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Undercover traffic cop

"People do silly things" when they don't know that station wagon is a sheriff's patrol car.

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published April 4, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Nice car.

That's what people usually say when Deputy Andrew Batchelder pulls them over.

Then there's a little confusion.

People aren't used to being chased down by a station wagon, which is what makes the Hernando County Sheriff's Office "stealth" car successful.

A little over a year ago, the department used $25,346 in grant money to buy a 2005 Dodge Magnum station wagon and another $16,604 to equip it with all the technology of a police car.

The dark gray car has tinted windows, hidden red-and-blue lights and a subtly mounted radar gun.

From the outside, it looks like a regular car.

You probably wouldn't know there's anything unusual - until it pulls in behind you.

Ask Jason Stidham, 18, who blew by Batchelder one night last week riding a red motorcycle.

He was cited for driving with an expired tag, driving without a motorcycle endorsement and careless driving.

"Good job hiding that," Stidham said after he had loaded the motorcycle into the back of his wife's pickup. "I didn't even see you when I went by."

No one ever does.

Batchelder tickets people for running red lights in front of him, blaring their horns and even tailgating his car.

"People do some silly things in front of you," he said. "They're much more likely to tailgate me than in one of the billboards."

Billboard is the word he uses for marked patrol cars with their light bars and reflective insignia.

An hour after ticketing the motorcycle rider, Batchelder was on Deltona Boulevard when a pickup stopped in the middle of the road to let off a few passengers.

"What are we doing here?" Batchelder said to himself. "I call it impeding traffic."

The lights went on. The routine started again.

Batchelder, 32, is an 11-year veteran of the department. He issues seven to 12 tickets a day, depending on whether he has to attend to a lot of crashes.

On Batchelder's days off, Deputy Lance Origon will sometimes take the Magnum.

"You'll have people flying by throwing stuff out the window," Origon said. "If you're looking for traffic offenders" that's the best car you can get.

Batchelder said the car wouldn't have to be a Dodge Magnum in order to blend into the traffic.

A minivan could do that, too.

But the Magnum's big engine comes in handy on traffic stops.

"If you're going after a speeders in a minivan," he said, "that isn't going to work."

In order to hold onto the element of surprise, the Sheriff's Office asked that the car not be photographed.

So aggressive drivers, beware.

The next Magnum you see might be coming for you.

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 3, 2007, 21:59:55]