I received your question regarding the use of marked vehicles with lights to protect workers in construction zones versus unmarked vehicles when conducting some highway traffic enforcement.

The Massachusetts State Police have all different types of vehicles utilized for patrol and enforcement such as marked cruisers, low profile marked cruisers, unmarked cruisers and specialty vehicles. The cruisers utilized in construction zone details are required to have ample police lighting to make the construction zone visible or when a piece of construction equipment is being moved on the roadway the motorists should be alerted by the police lights that construction equipment is on the road. The idea is to give the motorists plenty of warning that there is road construction so they don't get involved in a crash and so they slow down so they are safely able to pass by this zone.

The State Police use primarily marked and low profile marked cruisers to conduct traffic enforcement. They also utilize unmarked and specialty vehicles to conduct traffic enforcement and other police functions. Unmarked and specialty vehicles can on occasion be valuable to enforcement teams because the police vehicle can go undetected and catch the violators on the highway who are putting other motorists lives at risk when a marked vehicle can be detected.

One of the goals of Massachusetts State Police is to save lives and reduce injury crashes on the highways of the Commonwealth. The fatalities can be devastating for a family. We try to reach our goals through education, enforcement and highway engineering. I hope I have answered some of your questions. If you would like to contact me, you can call me at State Police Headquarters at 508-820-2323. Thank you.

Sincerely, Sergeant Eric Anderson