Yes Virginia drivers, Smokey is back in the air. Virginia police are expanding aerial enforcement of traffic laws after a multi-year lull.

And while we all can agree that aggressive drivers should get tickets, they cause the most accidents and give us all rashes of road rage, how do you feel about an eye in the sky?

Would flying cops be the newest red light cameras? Or more akin to DC MPD CCTV and neighbourhood spy cams?

They are engaging in generic surveillance of the general public, indiscriminately check out your driving habits. Yet, as the Wash Post article points out, they can catch crazy drivers better than land-based police.

And no word yet if they will be looking for Dulles Tool Road toll dodgers too.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan Vota

Married, mortgaged, and soon to be a father, Wayan Vota is in the fast lane to mid-life respectability – until the day his brood finds his intimate journal of global traveling and curses him with the ever-eternal reply “I’m gonna be just like you, Dad!”