Color the CHP Beige in Crackdown Against Speeding Drivers of Big Rigs

It’s a good thing Broderick Crawford is no longer with us.

The California Highway Patrol car made famous by his 1950s television show is going undercover.

The basic black-on-white patrol car, known to drivers from San Ysidro to Yreka, is getting a more subdued cousin: a beige-ish Chevy Caprice or Ford Mustang, sans the heavy-duty “push” bumper and light rack.

You might as easily imagine Steve McGarrett in a phony beard and glasses. Or Marshal Dillon slouching and trying to look inconspicuous.

When it comes to law enforcement icons, the traditional CHP cruiser is nonpareil: bold, no-nonsense, easily spotted on the freeway.

So what gives here? Is this some paisley politics left over from the Jerry Brown era?

Not really. The “conservative, nongovernmental” cars are meant to help the CHP in its continuing battle with speeding truckers.

With cabs that are eight feet tall and citizen-band radios ever at hand, truckers have learned to spot Smokey from miles away and slow down just long enough to avoid a ticket. That’s fine, except that trucker-at-fault accidents statewide increased 68% from 1982 to 1988.

Enter a small fleet of less-noticeable CHP cars: 12 to hit the freeways in coming weeks in the San Diego-Orange-Riverside-Imperial region.

Three will be assigned to San Diego County, to be used mostly on Interstate 5 near Oceanside, I-15 north of Mira Mesa, and I-8 east of El Cajon.

Under the hood, the car is standard CHP. The famous logo is still on the door. But the lights are hidden and, from a distance, the speeder is unaware.

I took a spin on I-15 with Patrolman John Marinez.

He pulled alongside a woman in a Mercedes-Benz merrily going 70 m.p.h. in the middle lane. She didn’t notice him until he used his loudspeaker to tell her to slow down.

She slowed down. Marinez said he hopes that from now on maybe she’ll drive slower, never knowing if that unassuming car behind her is the CHP.

Today a Mercedes, tomorrow a Peterbilt or Mack.

Pleas for Help May Fall on Deaf Ears

Three points about the civic struggle in Encinitas to cope with illegal alien encampments:

* When Encinitas broke away from the Board of Supervisors to become a city in 1986, the rallying cry was: Never again will we have to beg for help from a county government that is faraway, indifferent and broke.

Four years later, Encinitas is begging for help from a federal government that is faraway, indifferent and broke.

* As the level of homeowner frustration has increased, the level of angry talk has decreased, as contradictory as that seems.

Don’t just take my word for it. An editorial in the Encinitas Coast-Dispatch assessing last week’s overflow City Council meeting noted that it was largely free of overheated verbiage.

* The same night Encinitas was deciding to ask Washington for help, the Carlsbad City Council, also dealing with the migrant problem, was hearing from a council colleague who had just returned from seeking money in Washington.

Carlsbad Councilman John Mamaux was direct: The “Read My Lips” Administration is not moved by pleas for housing, social programs, etc.

Through the wonders of public-access cable television, the Carlsbad meeting was shown in Encinitas. To some, it seemed a preview of coming attractions.