IL: Budget Cuts May Jeopardize Safety On State Roads

OFF THE WIRE
From Illinois.... but I'm sure we're going to see more and more of this across the country, in these financially trying times... when balanced budgets are a dinosaur, and legislators look for funds to steal and appropriate for other usage!

Bikers be ready to stand up and fight!

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/state.police.budget.2.1631045.html
Budget Cuts May Jeopardize Safety On State Roads
Ill. State Police Motorcycle Fleet May Be Eliminated Due To Gov. Quinn's Orders To Cut $54 Million
Reporting
Jay Levine
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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1 of 1Illinois State Police recently expanded its motorcycle fleet to help save lives. Now, the governor's order that it cuts $54 million from its budget could not only cut that fleet, but eliminate it altogether.
Is your safety on state roads about to be compromised? Illinois State Police recently expanded its motorcycle fleet to help save lives. Now, the governor's order that State Police cut $54 million from its budget could not only cut that fleet, but eliminate it altogether. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine takes a closer look.

It's not a done deal yet, but it's definitely on the table; along with cutting tac teams, air operations and hundreds of troopers. A unit which dates back nearly a century could be no more.

Trooper Rich Kozik uses a laser gun searching for speeders on the Dan Ryan Tuesday night. Something he's been doing for nine years, as he watched motorcycle safety patrols step up their enforcement of speed limits, as well as seat belt requirements and other potentially life-saving rules of the road.

Tonight, those he catches receive only warnings. Soon, he and his fellow biker cops may not even be around for that.

A far cry from the Illinois State Police announcement of the Motorcycle Enforcement Bureau just four years ago, predicted "to cut down the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit and will ultimately reduce the number of crashes, deaths and injuries."

An announcement which prompted Harley Davidson to put Illinois troopers on the cover of its national law enforcement magazine.

"I am certain at some point in time, the director of the State Police had to make a decision, troopers or motorcycles," said Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington.

He heads one of just three Illinois departments still patrolling with motorcycles; seven of them, right now getting tuned up for spring and summer. Equipped with the very latest in technology, including cameras which record traffic stops and violations.

"With the population density, the parking density, traffic density, we find motorcycle officers to be an effective tool in enforcing those ordinances," Eddington said.

Eddington plans to keep his motorcycle patrol, but Illinois State Police, founded in 1921 with a fleet of 10 motorcycles for its first vehicles, could be forced to abandoned its Harleys due to the $54 million State Police budget cut ordered by the governor.

So Rich Kozik's routine, days of riding up and down Chicago area expressways, looking for safety violations, may be numbered.

Though ironically, the bike he's riding is in fact much cheaper to operate than the standard squad car.

"It costs us about 40 cents a mile to run a Crown Vic," Eddington said. "It costs us about 15 cents a mile to run a Harley."

This is only partly about motorcycles, but it's all about public safety. And whether the cost of balancing a budget the way the governor proposes could be in lives.

The governor's spokesman did not return calls for comment.