Ever call the police to report something that didn't look right, like a truck parked on a city street or a highway shoulder for five days for no apparent reason? And the police operator wants to know, “And why do you think that's suspicious?”
That's frustrating, because the operator obviously knows nothing about trucking, and you feel she should. This could get in the way of good law enforcement – in this case, maybe recovering a stolen or abandoned truck, or – who knows, these days? – even checking to see if there's a bomb aboard.
Police are taking such reports more seriously since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, says Jack Legler, director of security for the American Trucking Associations. Truckers should still call in, but it would help if they were part of an officially organized process.
So ATA is proposing an Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) as a cooperative venture between industry and the federal government, Legler says. It's pitching the idea to the White House and various agencies in the Department of Transportation. It could fly.
ISAC would be an extension of ATA's Highway Watch that's been running for about a year, and is part of its “America's Trucking Army” public relations campaign. Police agencies and trucking associations in 13 states (Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, Mississippi, and by summer's end, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) have signed on to Highway Watch, and ATA wants to expand it throughout the U.S. and Canada.
"Communications is a big part of it," he says. "There are three-and-a-half-million drivers who are professionals and see stuff. We'd like to have three-and-a-half-million drivers trained to observe and report things in the right format to the right people."
Highway Watch trains truck drivers in what to look for and exactly how to report what they see. And it trains police officers and operators to recognize a Highway Watch call and to handle it rapidly and properly. Cops actually do most training at fleet-sponsored seminars for drivers, but that could expand to truck stops and even scales and roadside inspections.
Highway Watch drivers can call a special toll-free number to an operations center manned around the clock, Legler explains. This is a road-service contractor that happens to be in Nebraska; operators know how to take information and pass it along to people who can do something with it.
What is that toll-free number? Legler won't say, because making it public would result in prank calls. He wants only trained drivers to use it. Highway Watchers authenticate their calls with code words so the operators know they are legit.
Cynics think ATA is in this simply to expand its empire, but Legler says Highway Watch has the blessing of a number of non-ATA groups. It seems like a great anti-terrorism, anti-crime and pro-safety program.
Most Highway Watch calls now deal with wrecks. Lives have been saved because police and paramedics were able to respond extra fast. And of course, truckers rendered on-the-spot aid.
If you're not a trained Highway Watcher, what should you do 'til you are? Legler says to call in any emergencies to 911, like you do now, or maybe to the special cell-phone number state police agencies have set up (and post on road info signs). For other suspicious things, call the local police department's administrative number, or notify your company dispatcher and ask him/her to pass it on to the authorities.
On the anti-terrorism front, what should you watch for? "Look for weird things," he says. If you see things that don't look right in the context of the situation – if you see a guy wiring the Main Street bridge and he doesn't look like he should be there doing that – or you see a truck parked in one place for a while and it doesn't look right – call it in."
Do it and you'll have signed up for the Trucking Army.
