THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2006

'Stop Means Stop'

Latest Campaign Confirms Park Ridge Police Mean It

By DWIGHT ESAU

Journal Reporter

Quick now, drivers, 'fess up, how many of you come to a rolling stop at stop signs and then proceed?

Sometimes? Often? All the time? Never?

In Park Ridge, stopping at signs is getting to be a very big pain, and a very big deal, and local cops are backing up their new priority with a "Stop Means Stop" campaign.

They have posted homemade signs saying "Stop Means Stop" at several intersections where residents have complained that drivers frequently abuse the stop sign by merely slowing down, or sometimes not slowing at all.

And, believe it or not, Lt. Lou Jogmen, a supervisor in the city police department's traffic division, says it's working.

"We put up the signs right under stop signs, and we have stationed officers there in unmarked cars monitoring what happens," Jogmen said. "We have observed that people are actually stopping properly more often.

The project began at scattered times last summer, but was expanded about two weeks ago.

The signs are inexpensive because officers made them themselves, Jogmen said, and they emphasize compliance rather than enforcement, making them more palatable to residents.

"Residents who have complained to us also say they appreciate them and they generally feel they are working," Jogmen added.

The signs were initially placed at Weeg Way and Parkside, Michael John and Washington, Vine and Belle Plaine, and Thorndale and Canfield, but they may be elsewhere now. "We will rotate them around and add more as indicated by citizen input and our own observations," Jogmen said.