The local schools and local police have put their minds together once again to make us all feel safer by introducing and trumpeting a 'safety' program called STOPPED an acronym for "Sheriff’s Telling Our Parents and Promoting Educated Drivers".  

The STOPPED program registers teens in a police database and alerts their parents whenever their teenage driver gets pulled over and the officer sees the special STOPPED sticker.  This is not a new program, it started in 2005 with effectively the same parameters as it uses today.  Mason County and one other Michigan county are the testing grounds for a new system that will alert the parents by E-mail rather than by snail mail, getting junior a quicker and more meaningful punishment perhaps in the new process.  Here are the details courtesy of the Mason County Press (article continued under the obligatory picture of superintendents and supercops holding STOPPED pamphlets) a nearly similar story was shared with the COLDNews as well, since our school safety partners wanted to promote that they were actually doing something.

 

LUDINGTON — State Farm Insurance made a donation today to a program that helps parents of teenaged drivers stay informed if their child has been pulled over by law enforcement. The Michigan Sheriff’s Association’s Sheriff’s Telling Our Parents and Promoting Educated Drivers (S.T.O.P.P.E.D.) is a voluntary program for parents who would like to be notified when their child is involved in a traffic stop by a police officer.
The program has been around for several years but notification was completed by regular mail. A $25,896 donation from State Farm Insurance is allowing the state organization to automate the process. The program is being tested out in Mason and Livingston counties.
Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole said if the program is success in those two counties, it will be expanded through the remainder of the state. Cole said when a police officer pulls over a vehicle with a STOPPED sticker, the officer can place the corresponding number into an Internet based program and hit the send button. The officer then tells the driver that his/her parent will receive a text message or e-mail regarding the traffic stop. But, the officer informs the young driver that he/she has 48 hours to discuss the event with his/her parents before the parent receives the message. “This system allows for not only notification but accountability between young driver student and parent,” Cole said.
During a local press conference announcing the enhanced system, Sheriff Cole included local law enforcement leaders, school superintendents, and the two Mason County State Farm agents.
“I want to emphasize that officers are not allowed to pull a driver over just because the sticker is on the car,” Cole said. “The sticker’s purpose is to serve as a way of teenage drivers to stay accountable."  [END of article]

If you didn't recognize the two people in the middle of the picture, it's because they are State Farm agents from Michigan who have donated nearly $26,000 to upgrade the system to send out E-mails rather than mailed notifications.  If you ever wonder why your Michigan car insurance is the most expensive in the nation, more than twice the average rate, these donations explain the general idea.  

According to this FAQ page released from the Michigan Sheriff's Association and State Farm, the statewide program had sent out around 100 notification letters in the eight years of its inception (about 12 per year), which accounts for about $50 in postage, envelopes, and form letters for that period.  At that rate, by now each county sheriff's office has sent out on average less than, but nearly, two letters since 2005.  Or about one dollar worth of postage, envelopes and form letters over that 13 year period.  

One might claim that it's because there isn't enough awareness of the program or that parents worry about the other things noted in the FAQ page such as:  targeting, trust issues, value, wasting money, sharing private information, etc.  According to their answers, STOPPED then had 30,000 enrollees, and some school campuses required STOPPED registration if you were a teen that parked your car at school.  They note, before giving a couple of hokey reasons:  "There are many good reasons why a school would want students who park on campus to be enrolled in STOPPED."

This 'voluntary' program as noted in the MCP article will and has become involuntary at other places once strongly introduced as it is here.  And whereas we hear safety trumpeted from the people who are getting those State Farm grants, and from the media who duly note the generosity of the insurance company that wants to keep us safe, this program is more about control issues rather than safety issues.  

Consider this article back in 2015 from West Michigan's WWMT, it makes the case that STOPPED is protecting our teens and saving lives and notes that:  "Since its launch in 2005, STOPPED... says teen driving accidents are down nearly 25 percent."  New Jersey passed a law a while back that required red stickers be put on the corner of the license plates used by young and probationary drivers, but it had no effect other than the targeting earlier noted.  Stickers don't save lives.

This link notes that teen vehicle crash deaths between 2005 and 2015 went down nearly 50% across the nation, 

If we assume that Michigan's accidents and fatal accidents among teens are directly related over that time, the 25% decrease in (fatal) accidents experienced in Michigan noted in the WWMT report was much lower than the national reduction of (fatal) accidents.  The statistic used shows that any sort of impact the STOPPED program had, actually coincided with Michigan's worse than average traffic stats for young drivers over that period.  

Realistically, I can't see the program as having any sort of deterrent effect on bad driving practices by Mason County teens.  The county is so small and the media is so engaged with police actions that if a teen gets stopped for anything significant they know that half the county will find out about it before a couple hours, not after 48 hours have passed.  I think all local teenagers believe to some extent that their parents will find out in some way that they have been stopped in Mason County.  Those more likely to drive recklessly are also less likely to worry about such notification.

Psychologically, having the STOPPED sticker only shows a deputy that the control-oriented parent is more likely to forgive them if they do come down hard on the youth.   The stopped sticker on their windshield is a constant reminder to the teen of the oppression exerted not only by their parent(s), but also of their police-state society.  Maybe we shouldn't be asking how many teen lives have been saved by STOPPED, which is impossible to determine, but rather how many teen lives and psyches have been negatively affected by the program when it is forced on them by their school system and local police.  Expect parents of teen drivers to be forced to register in a very short time.

Contrary to the assertion by the Michigan Sheriff's Association, it's about control, it's not about safety.  If my teenage kid is ever stopped in Mason County by any law officer, I am fairly certain that kid will be the first to contact me and tell how they were treated by the deputy and why they thought the stop was unwarranted (and heaven help them if I find they are lying to me).  And since Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole has a history of making unlawful traffic stops and an inability to lawfully reply to FOIA requests, I would be inclined to trust my own over him.  

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  Seems just a way to get more information on people to put in the system .   So do they just send out a e-mail or text instead of a ticket?   Back in my teenage years tickets were the norm.  I do remember back in the late 60's I and about 20 others were busted for doing what they now  call " OUT LAW STREET RACING"  on a back road in Mason county.  No tickets were given as nobody was doing anything when they showed up but names were taken and phone #. By the time I got home the Sheriff Dept. had called  and given my dad the low down.  As I walked through the door my dad say's  DID YOU  WIN ??? LOL

I wonder if I could have the police call my parents instead of receiving a ticket. If parents are concerned with how their kids drive then install a camera in the car. The video below talks about cameras that record only intermediately but having a camera that's on all the time makes more sense.

That's great advice, Willy, because it not only allows a parent to have the camera as an unbiased witness to what may be poor driving practices by their kid, but also allows them to have an unbiased witness to police interactions that may occur as a result.  

If your kid learns from the state police that cameras can malfunction when it's for their benefit, they can learn from you that their driving privileges can also malfunction when such incidents occur.  

Totally, this is a disgusting program. I am APPALLED. Nothing like selling your kids soul. Implying safety, to build the Police State. I would never recommend enrolling anyone in this trap.I'm sure they also contact insurance companies who build profiles to make more money on these "High Risk" contracts. Parents who approve of this tactic only deny their child's Rights to Police. Sickening'

It does seem a strange conundrum:  I trust my kid enough to take this proven-deadly machine out by themselves, but then I don't trust them enough to drive safely on it and get stopped by authorities.  I'd like to hear from somebody excited about this program and find out how to square that circle.

Meanwhile, why can't the MSA create a more useful program for public notification and transparency in their traffic stops?  Let's call it SLATE (Sheriffs Listing Actual Traffic Enforcement) or something equally appropriate and have them create an electronic data sheet for each traffic contact, immediately available on their website, detailing among other things the legitimate reason for the stop and the rationale for their ultimate actions taken.  

Excellent idea, X. And while you are at it, include the statistic of how many body camera fails on the officer. It should be three strikes of camera failure and you are out. Please run for a state body where you could contribute.

County sheriffs with body cameras in Michigan is still not in the majority, but for the vast majority of traffic stops the dash cam should be sufficient, and a definite line item in the SLATE sheet would be whether the contact was recorded, along with a box to explain why it wasn't or what did take place outside audio or video range, if applicable.  

As you say, repeated "no" answers and hokey explanations of why should signal the reassignment of the road officer to desk duty, jail duty, or unemployment line duty.  

If the state was repeatedly and crazily going in the wrong direction, I might choose to run for a state office, but the major gripes I have with state government are not gripes that the electorate would latch onto.  The same with county offices. 

The City of Ludington leadership has been repeatedly and crazily going in the wrong direction for over ten years.  It means more to me to set them back on the right track, and if I can't manage that, I won't accomplish anything at any bigger government level.  I am the undisputed leader and legislator of my own self-government and until some ghost possesses me, I always will be in control of my own fate and soul.

I guess that's a qualified "no"! Good luck on the home front!

P.S. what would you say was a/the major things that got the local government off track 10 years ago? You say about 2008-- before the stock market tanked? Curious.

In simplest terms.

My belief is that Henderson, Shay and LPD Chief Barnett became too ingrained with city realpolitik after working together for a half dozen years, leading to some questionable acts coming to a head with the Jack Byers incident.  With the arrival of Heather Venzke (now Tykoski), the energies of this triumvirate moved on towards what were her goals and visions, with subsequent negligence towards the normal concerns of the municipality and what was good for the municipality.

The initial deal between Western Land Services and the LFD for the Bowling Alley Block exposed to me a lot of the shortcuts that were being taken all over.   These four people mentioned remain at the helm of the COL train in leadership positions that still promote too much folly.  

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