Originally Posted by
Jakebeth
Perhaps you're a copper and know better, and while you may be right that traffic cops prior to the current crop may not have actually been cops - I'm nearly certain that wasn't the case up through the mid-1970s, at least.
Not a cop and not a lifelong resident either (moved here in '93). I have no idea when they went to civilian police employees doing traffic, but that's what it was right before they all moved to TMA a few years back.
Originally Posted by
Jakebeth
I'm trying to do some research on it, but I'm nearly certain that sworn officers used to do in-the-street traffic direction back then. They used to wear those winter caps where the fuzzy flaps fold up to the top...
I'm sure that on occasion sworn officers do it now for stuff like special events and heavy periods. Another poster mentioned xmastime, makes sense to me.
Saw a good one last night. Getting off the bus on Inner Drive near Addison. Cubs game last night, so there was a TMA person at a 3-way stop intersection. Generally useful because they'll wave traffic through the stop sign when there is no car on the side street. Except this one stopped the northbound traffic so a southbound car could turn right (ie nothing blocking that northbound traffic).
