CHP Commissioner Michael L. Brown
c/o California Highway Patrol
P.O. Box 942898
Sacramento, CA 94298-0001
Dear Commissioner Brown:
I just read that you are encouraging motorists to call in to the CHP, by dialing 9-1-1 on their cell phones, if they witness what may be drunken driving. I am glad to have stumbled across this information, and also to know that you welcome this sort of citizen action. On a number of occasions I have witnessed dangerous driving on the road and wished that I could radio in for an officer to come seize the offender. I am certainly not the only one who has felt this way, as there is now a web site devoted to people posting the license plates of bad drivers along with tales that are supposedly meant to shame the driver in the medieval stocks of the modern age: the internet.
I am certain that you do not want folks to just call up and tell you every time they get cut off by an inconsiderate driver. But it is news to me that you are welcoming the public’s participation in traffic law enforcement, and authorizing officers to pull over a car based solely on eyewitness testimony. I will share this information with as many people as I can in order to help keep the roads safer this holiday season.
Truly,
Liz Mann
