'Scarecrow' is alive and well on Main Street
Published on August 2nd, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - The weather might be hot outside, but Stoneham Police are attempting to cool down hot-to-trot commuters with "Operation Scarecrow" coming to a busy street near you.
Many motorists and more on that a few onlookers with quizzical expressions have already noticed a Stoneham Police cruiser with a blond-haired dummy placed in the front seat "observing" the traffic on Main Street headed in both directions.
According to Stoneham Police Lt. Jim McIntyre, the police ruse is an important part of traffic enforcement and will be utilized along with radar readings and random police presence at certain traffic hot spots.
"We've started doing this for the last week or so, and once people get used to the dummy being there - then we'll put a real police officer in there once in a while and probably catch some motorists by surprise," said McIntyre. "We plan on moving the cruiser around to different places in town, wherever we feel like we're getting complaints or are traditional area of high-speed, and really cut down the speeding problem. We're calling the cruiser with the dummy 'Operation Scarecrow."
The change hasn't been without adjustments by people in town as on several occasions Stoneham Police has received phone calls about a "police officer stationed on Main Street" that ignored a motorist's attempts to ask for directions.
According to McIntyre, a van full of workers also pulled up to the cruiser and attempted to know on the window and ask the officer a questions - and then subsequently broke out into hysterics when they realized they were attempting to talk to a dummy.
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