Copter Cops

Soon after I arrived for my day shift assignment as a Michigan State Police Trooper at the New Baltimore Post,  I found myself up in the sky.  It was a beautiful Summer day and “Air Speed Timing” was scheduled for our Post Area.  Several troopers were reluctant to fly but I as a fearless young Trooper jumped at the chance.  I would be flying inside a Michigan State Police helicopter to clock speeders on Interstate 94 between Mt. Clemens and the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, Michigan.  So it’s off  to the nearby airport and there I met up with Lieutenant Chester (Chet) Nottage who is the pilot for the day.  He was a daring do veteran with a mischievous side which I soon experienced  up close  and personal in real time.

The method used for air speed timing is for the operators in the helicopter to time vehicles travelling through a predetermined zone measured and marked on the road surface.  At least two fully marked patrol cars are stationed about a half  a mile beyond the marked zone where the detected speeders will be stopped.  A radio call tells the ground troopers which car to stop.  After it is safely stopped the ground trooper is notified as to the speed and the time of the violation.  Then the enforcement action (speeding ticket) is issued.

On this day, after an hour or so spent timing vehicles,  the number of stopped vehicles was getting too large for the two ground troopers to safely control.  So we let up on timing vehicles in the northbound lanes so the troopers could catch up with their enforcement efforts.  We  casually looked at vehicles travelling in the opposite direction near where the troopers were and a Chevrolet Corvette accelerated and passed through the zone on the opposite side of the freeway at 114 miles per hour.

Chet looked at me and said, “we gotta get this guy”.  But how?  It was travelling southbound so nobody was in position to stop it.  We called via the radio to see if there were any troopers  south of our position but to no  avail.  So Chet says,” will you jump out of the helicopter if I can pull the car over?”  “Sure, that would be fun”, I smiled.  So off we go chasing a speeding car with the helicopter.  My mind told me this is a little crazy but my heart was all in.  We soon over took the southbound speeding car, which we had kept in sight, and which had slowed to normal speed.  Chet skillfully maneuvered the helicopter down to near ground level and motioned the car to stop which it did immediately.

After the helicopter was hovering 2 feet off the ground behind the Corvette,  (where a patrol car would normally be positioned) I undid my seat harness, put on my uniform hat and jumped out of the aircraft.   I had to hold onto my hat as I moved out from under the whirling blades.  As I approached the car  I had to suppress a grin because we were performing such an audacious traffic stop.   “Good after noon”, I said with a chuckle in my voice.  I was trying to make them believe we do this as a commonplace knowing full well it had never been done before.  The two young men were obviously astonished,  if not outright shocked at what was happening.  So was I.  The driver and his companion were from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada and looking at their faces I wondered what they were thinking about Michigan’s Law Enforcement efforts.  Whew!

The driver admitted he had “opened it up” to see what his car would do because he thought the police were busy on the other side of the highway and there would be little chance of getting caught.  But, ah ha,  little did he know that Chet and Joe were on “patrol”.  After a little further discussion the driver was directed to drive back to where the troopers on the ground were to receive his speeding traffic ticket.  No break was considered, after all I had to jump out of the sky.  I retained his diver’s license to ensure he did what I told him to do and he drove to the next exit and returned to the “scene of the crime”.  I got back into the helicopter and it was back  into the sky.  We flew north to where the ground troopers were and I jumped out again to give them the driver’s license and the speeding information.

I have often told this tale and skepticism if not out right disbelief is a regular response.  I’ll bet the two young men in the Corvette tell this story too and nobody believes them either. But it is true and I doubt if it will ever be repeated.  Chet added to his daring do reputation and I gained another unique story to tell.