I don’t know of another State that does this. In New York, construction crews, DGS, security personnel and others are perfectly capable of putting on a reflective vest and directing traffic.
When I worked in Brighton, we had a parking garage that needed some traffic direction at 5:00PM. Hard to explain, but it’s location made it difficult to otherwise leave onto the road without some support.
The building managers had security do traffic for several months, everyone was happy. Then one day it stopped and people freaked out.
Turns out the city caught wind of this and threatened a fine because there was no cop on duty. Now the building owners were basically required to pay for a cop’s overtime.
After a few stressful weeks, there was a cop directing traffic on the same spot. Did a far worse job. Oof.
Just a small example at how police unions are constantly at odds with public safety.
I saw three separate detail officers working with a single work crew on an overpass over a highway last week. And two of them were chatting up the construction guys. It’s bad enough that this work is usually unnecessary, but they also get paid in 4 hour minimum blocks, they get to listen to airpods/be on their phones, and they’re paid overtime for the privilege. It’s like a mafia protection racket.
The cop flagging racket is the textbook example of what I think of as the brand of corruption endemic to Massachusetts. It’s not particularly distructive, but it’s an egregious waste of money spent on something that could be better done almost any other way. On one hand, I’d love for it to stop, on the other hand, I’d rather this than what they have in Texas.
