Cops Dress as Construction Workers to Fool You

By Andrew Peerless in News on Jul 20, 2005 12:59PM

A female friend once told Chicagoist how demeaning and irritating she found the catcalls and wolf-whistles hurled in her direction by construction workers - but that, secretly, she always felt a twinge of self-doubt if a saunter past a construction site yielded no comments. If that holds true across the female spectrum, Chicagoland ladies expecting glances and more from the orange-vested, blue-collar studlets by the side of the road may be disappointed to find out that some of them are actually undercover cops.

In an effort to curb construction zone speeding and protect the men and women who work among the traffic every day, the Illinois State Police began undercover operations yesterday near the Halsted exit of the Tri-State Tollway. Troopers dressed in blue-collar garb stood among actual work sites and monitored passing vehicles for speed, alerting cohorts waiting in squad cars nearby when one broke the 45 mph limit.

More than 50 motorists succumbed to the ISP's trickery yesterday, receiving minimum tickets of $375. Chicagoist imagines you don't need to get too many of those before you realize that slowing down in a construction zone is probably a good idea.