To Deter Drunk Drivers, Houston Deploys Cop Car With Rear Painted To Look Like A Taxi

Robert Huston realizes the vehicle he unveiled Friday and its decoration, which includes “Sheriff Huston’s Taxi Co.,” might confuse some people. But he’s not opening a side business.
Tazewell County’s top police officer is lending his name to a new project he and leaders of the Tazewell Teen Initiative hope will give potential drunken drivers pause to consider their next ride – a taxi or a squad car.


“Everyone who sees that thing will be talking about it, and that’s the point,” Huston said during a news conference to show off his department’s newest tool to curb drunken driving.
With a grant from State Farm Insurance Co., the department applied yellow plastic wrap to the back half of a white, department utility car clearly marked as a sheriff’s vehicle. The result is a combination of auto detailing intended to convey the message, “Choose Your Ride.”
Several deputies proposed the idea after they learned of a similar project in Texas, Huston said.
“At first I thought they were kidding me,” he said. “It looked a little strange. But it’s a gentle, almost fun way” to deliver a message that could save lives.
That has been the goal since 2006 of TTI, a coalition of area police and health agencies and teenage representatives organized by the county health department after 15 teenagers were killed in accidents within 15 months. The coalition applied the insurance company grant funds it received to the taxi-squad idea.
Huston said the vehicle already has demonstrated its worth.
A deputy who drove it to Pekin from Springfield noticed a car speeding from behind at about 90 mph, Huston said. The driver apparently believed he was approaching a cab until he pulled alongside the vehicle and realized its true identity.
“Then it was like his brakes locked,” Huston said.
The Choose Your Ride car will not be used in regular police work, although after the episode with the highway speeder, it will be equipped with a radar gun, according to Huston. Rather, the car will serve as a traveling billboard that prompts this question:
“Do you want to go home in a sheriff’s car or a taxi?” said Jody Heavilin, the health department’s TTI chairwoman.
Huston said the car also will be displayed at area festivals and other outdoor events.