Officer dressed as homeless man catches drivers using phones
Published 11:00 am Wednesday, October 28, 2015
- In this Monday, Sept. 21, 2015 photo released by the Somersworth Police Department, Officer Anthony McKnight poses undercover in Somersworth, N.H., with a sign, intending to catch violators of the state’s ban on the use of hand-held phones or electronic devices while driving. Nearly 100 drivers were ticked during the five-day sting, including a woman who was ticketed after giving in to her daughter’s pleas to snap a photo of the sign. (Matt Duval/Somersworth Police Department via AP)
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — A Maryland police officer went undercover dressed as a homeless man to catch people who were using their phones while driving.
Cpl. Patrick Robinson went undercover Tuesday morning equipped with a police radio and a body camera. He held a sign that read, “I am not homeless. I am a Montgomery County police officer looking for cell phone texting violations.”
Montgomery County police Sgt. Phillip Chapin and about eight other officers issued a total of 56 tickets county-wide that day, including 31 tickets and 9 warnings to people caught using their phones without hands-free devices.
Chapin says authorities are seeing more distracted-driver-related deaths as a result of people using their phones while behind the wheel.
