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Police Dressed As Santa's Elves Ticket Central Florida Speeders

Some Motorists Say Using Holiday Icon To Enforce Law Is Not Right

POSTED: Wednesday, December 12, 2007
UPDATED: 3:37 pm EST December 12, 2007

Sheriff's deputies dressed as Santa's elves cited more than 100 speeders on Orange County roads Wednesday in continuation of a program some have called unfair.


IMAGES: Elf Tickets Drivers
IMAGES: Grinch Tickets Drivers
PHOTOS: Last Year's Operation
PHOTOS: Images Of ELF Operation

The Orange County Sheriff's Office continued their Operation ELF: Enforcing Limits and Fining speeders on the Alafaya Trail Wednesday.

Here's how it works: a sheriff's deputy dressed as an elf clocks cars using a radar gun then dispatches a motorcycle deputy to pull them over and issue the driver a ticket.

More than 130 tickets were written in just over two hours.

The highest speed was recorded at 79 mph in a 45 mph zone.

In the past, some motorists said using a holiday icon to enforce the law did not seem right.

"That's specifically why we didn't use Santa Claus," Ken Wynne of the Orange County Sheriff's Office said in an earlier report. "We didn't choose a nativity scene. We chose an elf. An elf is known for their impish behavior. If you're going to speed in Orange County, you never know who's going to be on the street corner."

Grinch Targets Drivers

Recently, a costumed officer dressed as Dr. Seuss' Grinch character handed out about one traffic ticket per minute for hours in Orange County.

The Seuss-costumed officer nabbed drivers traveling on Orange Blossom Trail near Holden Boulevard Wednesday.

There were so many people running red lights and committing traffic violations that costumed officer said he had little time to rest, Local 6's Laura Diaz said.

"We averaged about one a minute and we've been out here for about 50 minutes," Orange County sheriff's representative Wynne said.

Some drivers said their ticket was not fair.

"I think I'm being ticketed wrongly," a motorist told Local 6 after being pulled over.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

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