The Thin Cardboard Line

It's foolish to characterize all members of any group or profession as being one way or the other.  Take police officers. They come in all varieties...short and tall, male and female, red and yellow, black and white, some with great senses of humor, and some with none.

And I can tell you about on deputy in Williamson County, Texas, who is just stiff as a board. 

Because he is basically a board.

You might have heard of police departments putting broken-down old cruisers alongside highways where a lot of speeding goes on, and here's the new twist. Robert Chody, the sheriff of Williamson County, had cardboard cutouts made of the picture of one his deputies aiming a speed gun, and his department is placing these Cardboard Cops all over the county, wherever speeding gets to be a problem.

”It’s a creative way to solve a problem without really working the problem,” said Chody. “It's been pretty positive thus far and hasn't been implemented fully yet,” he went on.

Sure, you can tell it's a pretend policeman when you see him close up, but when you're sailing down the 6-Mile Road at a speed well over the posted, you're going to slow down, and that's the whole point.

“When you're going 20, 30 miles per hour and you see the silhouette you're immediately braking slowing down and that's exactly what we are trying to do,” said the sheriff.

Sheriff Chody said his department first used these unreal lawmen in school zones. “We didn't get one speeder; all these people were braking before they got to the cut out or as they were approaching the cutout,” said Chody.

And - check this for trickery - sometimes the sheriff will have a real deputy near the cutout, and sometime the cutout will work solo.

“Keep the community somewhat guessing, never feeling comfortable that they can speed in those problem areas,” said Chody, who says this is a creative solution for tackling a serious problem.

Naturally, some wise guy will get a speeding ticket and send in a picture of a check to cover the payment, and then the sheriff will send him a picture of handcuffs.

Or there's always the option of following the speed limit!