You’ve probably seen signs on the highway that say “Speed monitored by aircraft” or something similar. You may have even noticed that there are lines on the road to, presumably, measure how fast you travel between the two points. But I have not ever met anyone who has actually been caught in a speed trap of this type. I’m guessing that it’s all scare tactics. It just doesn’t seem to warrant the expense of operating and maintaining a helicopter or small airplane.
Persoanlly, no. But I have a couple of friends who got caught speeding by air patrol in Indiana. That was back in the 80s.
Then there’s this guy
I have witnessed this happening in Ohio, just outside of Dayton. Mass production - cop standing in the middle of the highway, taking direction from a police chopper, signaling car after car to the side of the road where a whole row of troopers were waiting to write the tickets. Quite a production.
Bark of this animal (“Bear in the Air” aka VASCAR) is probably worse than its bite because it
costs a lot of money to keep an aircraft in the air circling for hours on end. As #3 denoted they
do it more for show than for dough.
Check out this image. 
My friend used to drive well over the speed limit on I-80 between northern NJ and State College, PA. He racked up three or four “air enforced” speeding tickets during his four years attending Penn State.
I was once pulled over on Rt 93 in NH, just a bit north of Tilton.
When I asked what was going on at the “State Police ahead, be prepared to stop,” stopping location, the reply was “We have the plane out today.”
I got off with a warning, but to my credit, I was only going about 70 in a 65.
Thankfully, they didn’t look under my seat, nor smell inside the car. 
I did, back in either 1986 or 1987. It worked exactly like ASAKMOTSD described except when the State Trooper motioned at me I thought he was signalling for me to get into the right lane as I saw a patrol car pulled over on the left ahead. Imagine my chagrin when thchase car e sent after me caught up and pulled me over. The trooper told me I could get a ticket for failure to yield (obey an officer? I can’t remember exactly) for not having pulled over earlier. I explained what I thought was happening and only received a ticket for speeding.
Depends on the time and location. I got busted in Wyoming between Torrington and Lusk, 2 days before the official start of “Bike week” in Sturgis SD for going 90 in a 65 a few years ago. Small plane was timing vehicles (Those fat white stripes across the road? Markers for the guy with a stopwatch in the cessna) and radioing ahead to Cops on the ground to pull us maniacs over (or give chase, I suppose) for a hefty fine. Wyoming cops – at least on that stretch of road, at that time of year – have nifty little wireless credit-card readers so that you can pay your fine immediately and continue on your way. Even if you’re a stuffy middle aged woman in a stuffy Pontiac Bonneville.
In the interest of full disclosure, the ground cop and the dude with the stop watch (but not the pilot) are first cousins once removed, so after I paid the damn fine, they took me to lunch, listened to me whine, and admitted that the aerial monitoring is “sporadic” the rest of the year. I don’t think they would have really made me spend the night in jail if I hadn’t paid up, but they might have – and I was guilty as hell, so I didn’t test their fear of The Aunts, even though we were all at the same funeral the next day.
Moral of the story – behave yourself, because aerial monitoring is a cash cow for the WY state patrol in August, or at least bring your VISA.
A small plane like a Cessna 172 can be operated for under $100/hour - I’ve rented them as low as $75/hour, and that’s from an outfit trying to make a profit.
Helicopters are a lot more expensive.
But the point is, if you have a situation with a lot of people going through an area (like Sturgis, SD “bike week”) and you can expect to write a lot of tickets this could be a cost-effective operation.
I suppose the other factor is that you could have a police aircraft on other business notice a speeder and radio a car to take care of them.
If a police department is maintaining aircraft and pilots to fly them they’ll need to fly a certain amount per month to maintain legal currency - if things are slow there’s no reason they can’t use those hours for traffic patrol.
Hold on, does this mean you HAVE to pay right away? If you do not you go to jail for a day (at least? at most? until you pay?)? So there is no trial option, no pleading not guilty, just roadside justice? If so I sure hope this never makes it to Canada, seems like a LOT of bullshit to me.
IANAL, boatloads of other applicable disclaimers, but the way I understand it is that when a speeder signs a traffic ticket, he or she understands that she/he has essentially been arrested, and agrees to appear/pay up/whatever, and so is released on his/her own recognizance (sp?). That release is not automatic, and the officer has the ability to take the offender into custody & hold her/him until he/she (dear Og, that’s boring to type over & over!) is arraigned.
If I had not paid the fine, I would have (theoretically) been held until the judge in Podunk County Wyoming held the next scheduled court session, whenever that may have been. I did pay up, because I was guilty and actually thought it was kind of cool that I wouldn’t have to wait for a letter to tell me where to mail a check. About a month later, I did receive a letter explaining how to schedule a court date. I assume that meant I could have fought the ticket and possibly gotten my money back.
I assume that traffic on the road to south Dakota in August could possibly be perceived to have a higher than usual Failure to Appear/pay rate, so the Highway Patrol doesn’t extend the courtesy of releasing minor traffic offenders.
- Somewhere between Chicago and Rockford. My then boyfriend and I were going to visit his parents, with his brother in another car behind. We got stopped for going 88 in a 55 mile zone. The cop said we’d been clocked by the helicopter.
(Brother tried to argue his way out of the ticket by telling the cop that his speedometer was broken and he was just following. I’d bet you can guess how well that worked.)
At least here in CA I was under the impression that you had to be clocked by ground units for it to count. Now the planes would make excellent guides for where ticketable folks were and vector ground units in to make the catch, but I have never heard of people getting an airplane ticket here. Considering CHP all carry doppler radar and can determine your speed on the move they don’t need to be waiting on the side of the road.
So, basically, the only “proof” they’ve got is that some guy with a stopwatch in a plane clocked you going 75 in a 50 zone… How is that legal, fair, or sporting in any way? :dubious:
Wow, that sucks. I never realized that speeding was an arrestable offence. Is this true in all situations? Could you get arrested for a parking ticket and forced to go to jail until you were arraigned? My god that seems draconian.
I don’t think we even sign tickets in Canada, or at least Ontario, though I could be wrong, it has been a while since I received a ticket
You know, civilian versions of Predator Drone crafts will be perfect for this.
I have no idea about any other situation in any other state. To be fair, the ticket was for doing 90 mph in a 65 zone, which is just a bit more serious than an expired parking meter. It’s not a criminal offense – or at least has never shown up as such on any background checks – but it was a moving violation.
Paging lawyers or traffic cops to tell us the Straight Dope on this, please.
I was a passenger in a car driven by my ex-wife through Central CA in the mid-90’s when we were pulled over by a CHiPy. He pointed up to a circling Cessna and told us that the plane caught us speeding.
Was that the 101? If it is, your ex was the first I’ve heard about. I was always wondering if those warning signs were just BS with the intention to fool people into compliance on those long stretches of empty highway. Personally, I’ve never seen a plane tracking that highway.