WSP trooper puts Oregon plates on his patrol car
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 5:30 AM PST
By Leslie Slape
Printable version
E-mail this articleA Washington State Patrol trooper's creative idea for disguising his unmarked patrol car should have been cleared with superiors, a state patrol official said Monday.
"It's not typically something that is done," Sgt. Randy Hullinger of the Vancouver office said of Trooper Brad Moon's choice to put Oregon plates on his unmarked Dodge Charger patrol car.
The plates, which Moon took off a personal vehicle after he moved to Washington, have been removed from the patrol car, Hullinger said.
"We encourage our troopers to look at innovative ways to catch people," he said. "But it's always good to run innovative ideas past somebody else so we can consider all possible outcomes. He went out on his own. He was attempting to use some initiative to solve a problem, which is our job. But in this case it looks like maybe judgment-wise he should have run it by somebody else."
The Oregon plates were on Moon's patrol car last month when he issued Dave Milbrandt of Vancouver a citation for doing 56 mph in a 35 mph zone between 38th and 40th avenues of Ocean Beach Highway, Longview.
Milbrandt doesn't deny he was speeding, but he complained about Moon's plates in a story that appeared Sunday in the Vancouver Columbian.
He said he confronted Moon, then went to Moon's supervisor.
"It was corrected by his sergeant when it first became apparent what was happening," Hullinger said. He said Moon will not be disciplined.
State law requires that vehicles registered in Washington bear Washington plates.
One of the reasons Moon put the Oregon plates on his car is because a Woodland boy bragged on his MySpace page that he regularly drove 100 mph on the freeway and knew how to spot police to avoid being caught, Hullinger said.
"He was talking about his method for scoping out the road ahead to see who's up there," Hullinger said. The boy wrote that if he saw out-of-state plates, he knew it couldn't be a police car, so he'd hit the gas.
Moon's idea was good (although he never smoked out the dangerous teen driver), but he failed to consider that "the first thing the motoring public might think is, 'Is this a police impersonator?' " Hullinger said. "When they see a nonstandard police car, we want people to understand that when all the lights go on ... this is for real. But if there are Oregon plates on the car, there's just that much more concern in the public's eye it might not be a police car."
kelso fan wrote on Feb 7, 2008 7:00 PM:
bucketball wrote on Feb 8, 2008 4:39 PM:
Hahaha! wrote on Feb 9, 2008 9:56 AM:
Joshua Taylor Potts wrote on Feb 10, 2008 11:25 AM:
somedude wrote on Feb 13, 2008 10:58 AM:
Karen wrote on Feb 13, 2008 12:17 PM:
Kimosabi wrote on Feb 13, 2008 6:14 PM:
He swears it was me, first from Les Schwab to Walmart doing 102 miles at around 3:10 PM school day doesnt makes sence at all.
I was cited and Judge Koss took the case. I told the Judge I was innocent and I was willing to take a lie detector test, then the Judge reviewed the tape from the State Patrol car and Judge Koss dismissed the case on the grounds that the trooper fails to wear his hat (Part of his uniform) when he stopped me. So if because of a uniform code violation I was set free, I think Trooper Brad Moon should at least be verbally corrected by his superiors.
I agree he has the best intentions to serve and protect but if I happens to be the one he stoppped, taking in great consideration I have a conceal weapon permit things would be very unfortunate, because I can determine wether he is a bonafide Law enforcement or just a crook.
Mistakes can happens office Moon. "
Joshua T Potts wrote on Feb 17, 2008 4:02 PM:
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