Does Calling *CSP Keep You Safe On The Roads?
By Marshall Zelingerm.zelinger@krdo.comFollow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mzelinger
COLORADO SPRINGS – You see an impaired driver on I-25 and alert authorities. What happens next? While driving to Colorado Springs from a story in Pueblo, my photojournalist Isaac Blancas and I saw a weaving driver on I-25. We called Colorado State Patrol using *CSP (*277 from a cell phone). For 37 miles, we followed the weaving driver before a trooper made the traffic stop.
CALL #1: 11:47 p.m. (NB I-25 at Mile Marker 113)Marshall Zelinger: “We’re driving from Pueblo to Colorado Springs behind a truck that seems to be weaving in and out of its lane.”CSP: “Okay, where exactly are you?”
We disconnected after reporting our location, the truck’s license plate number and the truck’s description.
CALL #1CSP: “Okay, let me go ahead and air this to the Troopers out there and we’ll see if we can get them to stop.”
As we got closer to Fountain, the driver continued to weave. We dialed *CSP a second time.
CALL #2: 11:55 p.m. (NB I-25 at Mile Marker 123)Marshall Zelinger: “Hi, were you the one I talked to about a driver weaving northbound I-25?”CSP: “Um, let me see, is this Marshall?”MZ: “Yeah.”CSP: “Yes.”MZ: “Uh, he’s still doing it and we’re about 5 miles south of the Fountain exit.”CSP: “Okay, I’ll alert the State Troopers.”
Another 12 miles go by and the driver continues to weave. We call *CSP again just before we reach Colorado Springs.
CALL #3: 12:06 a.m. (NB I-25 at Mile Marker 135)Marshall Zelinger: “Hey, it’s Marshall again.”CSP: “Hello.”MZ: “We’re at 135 and he continues to do it.”CSP: “Okay, you know what, I’m going to transfer you down to that area okay?”
According to State Patrol Trooper David Hall, the phone call from my 303-area code was received by Denver dispatch. After this call, we are now transferred to a Pueblo dispatcher. According to Hall, there was no time lost from this transfer, since the original dispatcher radioed our information to State Troopers in the area.
CALL #3: 12:06 a.m. (after dispatch transfer, at Mile Marker 136)Marshall Zelinger: “We’ve been following a car from Pueblo and I’ve called it in twice, swerving.”CSP: “Okay.”MZ: “On I-25 northbound. Um, we’ve been behind it for 25 miles now.”CSP: “Where exactly are you at?MZ: “Uh, 136. It’s a red Ford truck, with Mexican “Chihuahua” license plate XXXXXX. We’re kind of curious, this is the third call we’ve made, what’s the usual protocol on something like this?”CSP: Well, basically what we’ll do is we’ll go ahead and put in a report in our system and it’ll get sent out of the office that we have in Pueblo and they’ll air it to the cars. You’re still following it?”MZ: “Yeah, but once we hit Cimarron, we’re probably going to jump off.”
Just as we approached the exit for NEWSCHANNEL 13, State Patrol called my cell phone. I’m told a Sergeant working out of the State Patrol office near I-25 and Circle Drive is about to leave the building to respond.
CSP Call To Marshall Zelinger: 12:11 a.m. (NB I-25 at Mile Marker 141)CSP: “My Sergeant is clearing the office right now, he’s going to try to catch up with this guy, are you still following?”Marshall Zelinger: “Yeah, we’re just about to pass Cimarron.”Isaac Blancas: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.”MZ: “Yeah, he’s in the left lane trying to pass a car, he’s still far enough behind it, but he’s doing a lot of pac-man-ing (driving over the lane lines). Yeah, he’s all over this left lane that’s for sure.”CSP: “I want to make sure that he doesn’t exit or anything like that, so if you don’t mind I’m going to keep you on the line until the Trooper gets in the area.”MZ: “We called at mile marker 113 and then again at (mile marker) 123, is it normal to go this far before anyone contacts me?”CSP: “Well, we’ve got everybody out on traffic stops already and not in the area, that’s part of the problem.”
We continue to follow the driver to the northern part of Colorado Springs.
CSP Call to Marshall Zelinger ContinuesCSP: “What’s your current location again?”Marshall Zelinger: “Coming up on Woodmen now.”CSP: “Okay, my sergeant’s at Garden of the Gods.”MZ: “We’re in the middle lane, he’s in the right lane now.”CSP: “(CSP Sergeant) He’s running hot, so he should be coming up on you pretty quick.”Isaac Blancas: “There it is, it’s coming.”MZ: “My photographer/driver Isaac says he can kind of see him in the rear view mirror coming toward us. There he is, he’s right behind him, he’s about to pass him. He’s pulling him over.”
“I wish I could put a number on the lives saved on the *CSP system. Some people have the impression, that have called *CSP, and don’t get a response, that they want to think that we don’t take it serious. We do,” says Colorado State Patrol Trooper David Hall. “At night, it’s kind of hard for us to respond to things of that nature sometimes when we don’t have a lot of coverage on the road.”
After 36 minutes and 37 miles, the driver was finally stopped at the north Academy exit, near Chapel Hills Mall.
“If we could make it perfect and respond within one minute every time somebody calls and sees someone driving bad, we would. It’s just not possible. It’s not a perfect system,” says Trooper Hall. “Even after 36 minutes it was a success because we were able to make contact with the vehicle. We don’t always have somebody that’s available every single time a *CSP report is in. We’re not going to be able to respond to every single *CSP call in person, we just can’t do it. We try.”
It turns out the driver had been behind the wheel all day and was tired.
“She’s not drunk, but she’s been driving non-stop since El Paso, Texas,” said Sgt. Rich Smith. “I’m going to issue her a ticket, at least the weaving that I saw here.”
Sgt. Smith made the traffic stop even though he was working in the State Patrol office at the time, and not patrolling the roads. So where were the other Troopers?
“We do have another guy that was down south, that was already on a traffic stop kind of by that Tinseltown Theater,” said Sgt. Smith. “It involved a car with some plates that were fictitious, so he’s going to tow that.”
“The only other area car that was on, was actually in Teller County,” says Trooper Hall. That Trooper was on Highway 24 at mile marker 295.
“We have a limited number of Troopers. All Troopers are not just sitting around waiting for *CSP calls,” says Trooper Hall. “We can’t just leave vehicles and people sitting on the side of the road to chase down possible DUIs. We can’t baby-sit every single person that gets behind the wheel of a car in the State of Colorado, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We don’t have the man power to do it and nobody wants the police state necessary to do something like that.”
According to Trooper Hall, you made 62,000 calls to *CSP in 2008. Since July 1998, you’ve made nearly 520,000 *CSP calls.
“This one is probably not common because we were able to make contact with the vehicle. I’m just being frank with you, we don’t make contact with a vehicle every single time that somebody calls in, which is why I say in this for instance, it was a success,” says Trooper Hall.
Despite our experience, Trooper Hall says other concerned drivers can learn from what we went through.
“Exactly what you did, is exactly what we need,” says Trooper Hall. “A description of the vehicle, a plate is incredibly important.”
How A *CSP Call Could Lead To Unexpected House Visit By TrooperHere’s why getting a license plate is important for State Patrol. Even if State Patrol doesn’t pull the driver over, the license plate is kept on record. After that license plate gets called into *CSP on three separate occasions, that vehicle’s owner gets a letter in the mail.
“Once you get three calls into *CSP, we send a letter in the mail saying your driving actions have caused enough concerns with your fellow motorists, that we’re taking interest in this,” says Trooper Hall. “They get a fourth call, we send another letter that’s a little more direct and then on the fifth call, they get a personal visit from a State Trooper.”
Even though a Trooper never saw you drive erratically, it’s possible you could still get a ticket.
“When they get that visit from the state trooper, if any of the reporting parties from the time that they’ve called are willing to sign a complaint, they’re issued a citation on the spot,” says Trooper Hall. “If we don’t observe the behavior, we can’t write a ticket unless somebody is willing to sign a complaint and then later testify in court.”
According to figures from the FBI and information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Colorado ranks near the bottom of all 50 states in number of Troopers per citizen.
