Pending legislation would put brakes on device

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- It's a motorist's dream: Push a button, change a red light to green and zip down the street. Right now, it's possible, and it's cheap. But some lawmakers want to make it illegal.

A device known as a mobile infrared transmitter, or MIRT, has been helping fire trucks and ambulances reach emergencies faster since the 1970s. Several companies now sell the device for about $300 on the Internet, and state officials fear that almost anyone can get one.

About the size of a radar detector, the transmitter is mounted on a visor or dashboard. A driver can activate it when approaching one of the 26,500 traffic lights around the country equipped to receive the data.

State officials worry that the device will cause havoc on the roads when members of the general motoring public get hold of it.

"We're concerned any time somebody might do something that might interfere with emergency vehicles," said Chris Ricks, spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

"If that is installed on a system, then that's there to help emergency vehicles get where they want to be, not to help drivers get somewhere a little faster than other drivers," Ricks said.

Jeff Slinkard, a private investigator in Jefferson County, signed up with an Internet-based vendor to sell the devices in the St. Louis area.

He said he hasn't even seen one of the devices -- let alone sold one.

"At this point, I think they're a very valuable tool to law enforcement ... but I haven't actively pursued selling those at this point," Slinkard said. "My whole goal was if local law enforcement agencies decide they want to purchase those, I'd be happy to sell those."

Slinkard insisted he wouldn't sell the device to anyone who was not affiliated with a police or fire department.

But efforts are under way around the country to prohibit nonemergency use of the transmitters. At least two such bills have been filed in the Missouri Legislature.

"Human nature is going to say, 'I'd like to get one,' but we need to deal with it before it becomes a problem," said state Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, who sponsored one of the bills. "It probably won't be that big a deal, but it needs to be dealt with before it becomes a problem."

Engler's bill would make possession or use of the device by anyone except emergency personnel a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. In addition to ambulance, fire and police service, the bill would allow the transmitters for park rangers, tow truck drivers and public utility workers who are responding to an emergency.

The bill would also ban selling a transmitter to nonemergency personnel.

Legislation that would ban the devices has also been introduced in the federal Congress and a handful of other states.

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Green light bills are HB1052 and HB1060.

On the Net

Missouri Legislature: www.moga.state.mo.us