HANDLING TRAFFIC!!!!!!

Handling traffic can be easier than you think!!!!

Traffic Tips
First, use your equipment—all of it. Wear your bright orange or ANSI-green glo-vest all the time, even during daylight hours. Sure, it's ugly, but this is no time to make a fashion statement.
Next, use your flashlight with the orange cone attached. During evening scenes turn the flashlight on. You want to be seen: That's the intent of standing in the intersection.
You also want to be heard. I'm not sure when whistles went out of style, but down here they appear to be nothing more than decoration, like your seniority or marksmanship pins. I see more Oakleys on the faces of traffic officers than I do whistles. Whistles are great attention getters especially for smaller-statured officers. Use yours. Remember: Use one long blast to stop all traffic and two short blasts to get drivers started again.

Next, remember light control. Just like in nighttime tactical situations, you can control the light at traffic scenes. Keep in mind if you're being illuminated from the front by your squad's headlights or spotlight, to the opposing driver you will be silhouetted or back-lit. It's probably best to park your vehicle well off the road; just use your yellow overheads and four ways, and try to use the streetlights to illuminate your position. Your glo-vest and flashlight will be your best tools. Use the on/off button to direct your drivers to where you want them to go: on for the forward directional swing, off during the back swing to avoid confusion.

A lot of people today, particularly the age group between 16 and 21, are inattentive, very easily distracted or just plain unconscious.
So, traffic officers must assume that the motoring public, including older drivers, are operating on a system that devotes 90 percent of their in-car driving time to their CD player, GPS, cell phone, coffee or newspaper; and that the appearance of either emergency lights, a traffic cop, highway flares or bright orange cones will only serve to short-circuit their brains. Expect it. In fact, plan for it.

Or put another way, if the average 21st Century driver can negotiate this scene with the normal traffic signal cycle in operation, let 'em go ahead. Put on your four-ways, get off to the side of the road and monitor the activity.
However, if the scene absolutely requires police traffic intervention, put the traffic signals on flashing red for all directions to avoid any confusion, and your reflective vest on. Then, get out your whistle and cone-equipped flashlight before you venture into the vortex of today's unconscious drivers. Assess the situation and have a plan when you walk into that intersection.


BE VISABLE AND BE SAFE!!!!