Distracted driver sting causes social media storm, raises questions

Thursday morning when Columbus Police Sgt. Chris Anderson was rolling into place off J.R. Allen Parkway at Bradley Park to begin a traffic sting operation aimed at distracted drivers, he had no idea the reaction it was going to cause.

Anderson, one of two sergeants in the Motor Squad, was one of about 15 officers who wrote nearly 100 tickets to drivers, most of whom they cited for using mobile phones in an illegal manner.

“It’s blown up,” Anderson said on Friday, 24 hours after the operation became public. “We had no idea it would draw this much attention. But we knew it was necessary and it needed to be done.”

A Ledger-Enquirer story about the operation that posted on its Facebook page had more than 1,200 shares, more than 550 reactions and nearly 200 comments by 2 p.m. Friday. The story had a Facebook reach of more than 100,000 people.

Thursday morning between 7:30 and 10 a.m., more than 10 motorcycle officers were on Bradley Park Drive pulling over drivers who had been spotted in violation of state law. An undercover detail along the side of Bradley Park Drive near the Whittlesey Road intersection was looking for violations and when they spotted one they would call for the driver to be stopped.

“We are catching a lot of grief about it,” Columbus Police Maj. J.D. Hawk said. “We are even getting it from former police officers. ... But we will continue this type of operation.”

Hawk won’t say when or where the next sting might be. He also said officers in the course of normal patrols will be paying attention to distracted drivers.

On Thursday, 96 tickets were issued, the vast majority of them for distracted driving, police said. Bringing the attention to distracted drivers is something that should happen, said Steve Craft, chief assistant public defender for the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit.

“But it could have been done without writing all of the tickets they wrote,” Craft said Friday of the Columbus Police operation.

The police used three laws in the Georgia Code pertaining to distracted driving to make the bulk of the cases.

The most broad of the three laws is Georgia Code: 40-6-241. It states: “Driver to use due care; proper use of radio or mobile telephone not violate section.”

A section of that law, 40-6-241.2 states: “No person shall operate a commercial motor vehicle on any public road or highway of this state while:

▪  “Holding a wireless telecommunications device to conduct a voice communication;

▪  “Using more than a single button on a wireless telecommunications device to initiate or terminate a voice communication; or

▪  “Reaching for a wireless telecommunications device in such a manner that requires the driver to maneuver so that he or she is no longer in a seated driving position properly restrained by a safety belt.”

Craft asserts that anyone cited on Thursday who was “texting or emailing” should go pay the ticket, because they violated the law.

But the execution of the sting is where Craft — a former police officer before becoming an attorney more than two decades ago — has some issues, and he has been vocal about it on social media.

“It is not against the law to drive distracted,” Craft said in his Facebook post. “It is against the law to drive in an unsafe manner when distracted. It appears that the most common citation is (for Georgia Code) 40-6-241. It is important to read the entire code section. It says in part, ‘... shall not engage in any actions which shall distract such driver from safe operation.’ It also says, ‘... the proper use .... mobile phone ... shall not be a violation of this code section.’”

Craft continues his argument: “So, ‘manipulating’ your phone, using your GPS, talking or ending a call, or even checking the time on your phone absent some unsafe driving activity — i.e. failing to maintain your lane or blowing the light or not going on a green — is not a violation of this code section.”

The Georgia Court of Appeals has already ruled that the safe and proper use of your phone is not a violation of this code section, Craft posted.

“If you got a ticket in this ‘sting’ and you were not texting or emailing and did not commit any other violation, I would suggest you consult an attorney and plead not guilty,” he said. “If you can’t afford an attorney, there are two full-time public defenders in Recorder’s Court now, and you should speak to one on of them.”

A conviction for distracted driving in Columbus Recorder’s Court carries a fine and court costs of $200.63.

Hawk anticipates some of the tickets will be challenged in court.

“I think some will, and when push comes to shove, some of them won’t,” he said.

It comes down to what the driver was doing with the phone or mobile device, Hawk said.

“If somebody was just talking on the phone they were not ticketed for that,” he said. “It is when they take their eyes off the roadway and do something with a phone, a laptop or they are putting their makeup on in a rear-view mirror, which means they are not looking at the roadway.”

That’s what officers were looking for, Anderson said.

“The letter of the law is the letter of the law,” he said.

Some people on social media have been critical of the fact that police officers were disguised as a roadside work crew. That is not an issue, Craft said.

“First, it was not entrapment,” Craft posted. “Pretending to be surveyors or construction workers so that they can observe you is perfectly legal. Entrapment requires the government to induce or solicit you to commit a crime in order to prosecute you for that crime.”

Police are trying to raise awareness and stop fatalities, which have already reached 14 in Muscogee County in 2017, Hawk said.

“We are not going after people looking at watches,” Hawk said. “It’s the cell phones and texting —and putting on makeup while you are flying down the road.”

One of the goals of the operation was to raise the awareness of distracted driving, Anderson said.

“We have done that,” he said.

And that’s not a bad thing, Craft said.

“I understand the desire to educate the public,” Craft posted. “But writing bogus tickets does not have the desired effect. ... Call a news conference, share the information on traffic deaths, explain the law, then conduct some enforcement actions, but write legitimate tickets for real offenses.”

The ultimate responsibility falls on the drivers, Craft insisted.

“Put down your phone while you drive,” he said. “ The life you save may be yours or your kid’s. Or me and mine. They are not accidents, they are wrecks. If you cause a wreck and kill someone, you will be criminally prosecuted. And ‘I didn’t mean to’ or ‘it was an accident’ is not a defense.”

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Distracted driver sting causes social media storm, raises questions."