Illinois’ Ticketmaster: State trooper has written more than 5,000 tickets

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Trooper Jason Heinzl has advice for a driver caught speeding: Be nice. “Trust me, it goes a long way,” he says. | Al Podgorski~Sun-Times photos

Updated: September 24, 2011 12:22AM

Trooper Jason Heinzl squinted through the sight of his speed gun, fixed the red laser target on the license plate ‘PQQDLE’ and pulled the trigger.

For a split-second as it flashed past Heinzl’s hidden squad car in the passenger seat of a speeding Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, the unmistakable profile of a well-groomed poodle was silhouetted in black against the sun-bleached windshield.

“Seventy-eight miles an hour,” Heinzl said, stomping on the gas and turning on his lights. “That’ll do.”

A couple of minutes later the dog’s apologetic owner was parked at the side of I-294, and Heinzl was doing something he has done more than any other Illinois State Police cop in the Chicago area over the last decade — writing a speeding ticket.

The 5,005 speeding tickets the 36-year-old veteran of 12 years has written since January 2000 is 603 more than his closest colleague, a Sun-Times analysis of more than 700,000 tickets shows. Or as he puts it, “If I have to get out of my car, you’re usually getting a ticket.”

Assigned to the roaming Special Enforcement Team — unlike most troopers who patrol the same stretch of highway every day — Heinzl has gone as far as disguising himself a construction worker to nab speeders and is harder to avoid than most. But motorists hoping to dodge tickets can glean several useful tips from the mountain of tickets.

With a record 79,724 tickets written on the highways in and around Chicago last year — 13 percent more than in 2009 and 75 percent more than were written in 2004 — and tough new laws targeting flagrant speeders caught going more than 100 m.p.h., the tips could save you a small fortune, and your license.

As you’d expect, the amount you exceed the limit by is a key factor in how likely you are to be pulled over. But the stretch of highway, the time of day, the date and even the day of the week can make a huge difference, the data suggest.

While drivers can be ticketed for going as little as 1 mph over the limit — a fate 42 unlucky individuals have suffered over the last 10 years — you’re probably safe if you stay within 10 mph of the limit on the highway. Just 1 percent of all tickets are handed out for such minor infractions.

A quarter of all tickets are for exceeding the limit by 10-19 mph, but by far the largest share of tickets — 55 percent — are handed to those who go 20-29 mph too fast. Less than 5 percent are handed to speeders going 40 m.p.h. or more over the limit.

Heinzl has written a handful of tickets for drivers going as little as 3 mph over the limit, but also clocked the fastest speeder ever caught in Illinois, a motorcyclist who did an eye-popping 182 mph on I-294 last year. Normally, though, he targets cars going over 80 m.p.h. and trucks going over 70.

“Nobody needs to be going 80 mph,” he said, although his ire is piqued most by dopey drivers who overtake him in construction zones. “Come on,” he said, “I’m right here. I can see you.”

DuPage County — which boasts the top three ticketing hot spots in the Chicago area — appears to have the region’s most heavily policed roads. For every mile of road on the most heavily ticketed stretch of highway, I-290 in DuPage County, 25 times as many tickets are issued as on the lowest-ticketed highway, I-80 in Cook County. I-55 and I-355 in DuPage are also heavily ticketed, while long stretches of I-57 in Will County and I-90 in McHenry County are relatively untroubled by police sirens, with less than one ticket written a day, on average.

If you’re out for a weekend drive — look out. Up to 30 percent more tickets are written on Saturdays and Sundays compared with Tuesdays, consistently the slowest day for ticket-writing.

And if you think empty roads at the midnight hour give you a license to lead-foot it, think again. More tickets are written between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. than any other time of day, except for the morning rush hour. By far the fewest are written between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., and few tickets are written during the evening rush hour because of heavy traffic.

Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends and Thanksgiving are bonanzas for state troopers, with triple the tickets of an average day and 10 times as many as are written during the Christmas holidays.

Heinzl, who has sneaked up on oblivious speeders doing over 80 while they operated a breast pump, or enjoyed a wet shave, says there’s only one reliable way to avoid the $120 fine and hassle of a ticket.

“Slow down,” he said.