Joe Stevens works at night — much to the chagrin of lead-footed motorists who travel the interstates in Cincinnati.

        Mr. Stevens is a Cincinnati police officer assigned to the traffic unit. Part of his job is watching for speeders on Interstates 75 and 71.

        “The focus of our job is traffic enforcement and DUI. Our assignment is the expressways,” Officer Stevens says on a recent night shortly after he began his 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift.

        Before heading to the interstate, Officer Stevens checks his laser speed-detecting device to make sure it's operating proper ly. He prefers the laser, which resembles an old home movie camera, over radar.

        “Radar operates on sound. Laser operates on light,” Officer Stevens explains. The laser device is “a little harder to work, but it's a lot more precise.”

        At about 10:30 p.m., Officer Stevens parks his cruiser in one of several somewhat secluded spots near entrance ramps to northbound 75 between the Ohio River and Interstate 74. When there are no crashes to investigate, he's on the lookout for speeders and impaired drivers.

        “It's (traffic on I-75) pretty steady until midnight, then it drops off,” the 35-year-old officer says. “It's pretty hit and miss after that.”

        But there's never a shortage of speeders.

        “People are always in a hurry and speed is the No. 1 contributor to crashes,” Officer Stevens says.

        Holding the laser device with both hands, Officers Stevens points it out the window of his cruiser toward the oncoming northbound I-75 traffic. In ideal conditions, the laser has a range of up to a half mile.

        “I usually don't pull them over until 70 — that's 15 over,” Officer Stevens says. “We try to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

        A little later, while aiming the laser at the center of the grills of approaching vehicles, it registers speeds of 48, 59, 60, 61, 53, 56, 51, 64, 59, 53, 58, 68, 65, 65 and - BINGO - 70.

        Placing the laser on the seat, officer Stevens eyeballs the offending vehicle as it approaches. A Mitsubishi Gallant. Waiting for a break in traffic, Officer Stevens pulls onto the expressway and floors it. In less than a minute, he pulls behind the car and turns on flashing lights.

        Driver Shea Murphy, 30, of Winton Place, accepts her $76 speeding ticket gracefully, but thinks it was just bad luck that she was caught this time.

        “I feel like I was just keeping up with the flow... I knew I was speeding,” she says. " ... When I went past him, I knew he was going to get me. ... Everybody that speeds knows they're wrong.”

        The vast majority of drivers Officer Stevens stops for speeding accept their tickets without any back talk.

        “Every once in awhile we get one who is adamant and denies speeding. "You picked me out because of the car I'm driving,' (they say),” he says. “I'd say most of the people realize they were speeding and they take their lumps.”

        Earlier, Officer Stevens catches Christopher Gumm's Suzuki 600 motorcycle doing 73 mph.

        “I was mad,” the 20-year-old Green Township resident says of the moment he noticed the flashing lights behind him. “I just got off work, and I was ready to go home and get some sleep and go to school in the morning. ... I just wasn't thinking. I'm usually very careful coming through here.”

        Kevin L. Donahan's Dodge pickup truck is doing 71 mph when officer Stevens stops him.

        “When you're wrong, you're wrong,” the 28-year-old Winton Place resident says. “Nowadays, you have to drive 65 or more or get run over, whether it's right or wrong.”

        One speeder manages to avoid a ticket by changing lanes and pulling in front of a tractor trailer in the high speed lane. Officer Stevens decides to let that driver go, rather than risk causing a traffic accident while trying to pull him over.

        Also this night, Officer Stevens tags an abandoned car so it can be towed and cites a pedestrian for walking along the interstate — that's a $76 ticket also.

        Officer Stevens joined the traffic unit almost 3 years ago.

        "'I've got real strong feelings about drinking and driving,” he says.

        He has always worked nights since joining the police division in October 1988: “I like it. I've been on nights just about my entire career.”

        His schedule works well for his family — wife Amy, a Cincinnati police officer who works the day shift, and their children, a 2-year-old boy and and 1-year-old girl.

        His schedule allows the family to get together for dinner every evening.

        “That's the only guaranteed time I have with my family,” he says.

        If you have a suggestion for Night Watch, call William A. Weathers at (513) 768-8390, fax 768-8340.
       

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