Exceeding the speed limit? Someone above may be watching



KENOSHA CO. (WITI) -- Drivers with lead feet often become adept at spotting law enforcers along the interstate before they get caught speeding. But that's not always the case.

Trooper Kyle Amlong cannot predict the future, but he knows which drivers are speeding before he can see them.

"I'm going to turn on my lights and siren and talk to this individual," said Amlong.

So how does a guy with no radar or laser clock a car going 80 miles an hour? He does so with a little help from above. An aerial enforcement team is soaring 1,500 feet above the pavement, tracking cars as they travel between a series of white lines, spaced an eighth of a mile apart.

"5.56 seconds over the eighth of a mile, .1250 miles, average speed of 80.0 miles per hour," said the pilot of the plane above.

It kicks out a vehicle's speed using one of those basic formulas your high school physics teacher taught you -- and it gives the ground crews the element of surprise.

Pilots clock the speeders and then verbally guide their grounded teammates to the violators.

"The funny ones are the ones when they say they have to go to the bathroom even though they passed three or four exits back behind them that all have rest stops at them," said Amlong.

Drivers in the enforcement zones are given a warning that they're being watched. But not seeing a squad car on the side of the road means some don't bother slowing down.

"Today we've been doing the detail for what an hour and ten minutes and I think we've had six or eight traffic stops already," said Amlong.

The crews were out in Kenosha from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Wednesday. They do rotate the aerial enforcement around different parts of the state.