Ill. State Police - New Driving Rules

On Friday the Illinois State Police issued new, more restrictive driving rules for its troopers. These changes come one year after a trooper lost control of his car at 126MPH, while responding on an emergency call near Collinsville, Ill. The trooper crossed the median and hit a car, killing two sisters.

Basically, these are the new rules:
1. Specific criteria for call responses. No more free-for-all. And it sounds like troopers might even be expected to obey speed limits for Level One responses. What a novel idea.
2. Troopers must use hands-free cell phones.
3. Troopers are not to operate technology during emergency calls (in-car computers, texting equipment, cell phones).
4. In-car video-cameras are not to be turned off during emergency responses.

You can read the news release at http://isp.state.il.us/media/pressdetails.cfm?ID=452

For the trooper performing his duty in a lawful manner, these rules won't be a problem at all.

We could use these same rules in McHenry County. Will the sheriff and police chiefs be forward-thinking enough to follow Director Trent's lead and implement similar rules without a lot of arm-twisting by the public?