| Often times, traffic officers do
not drive around aimlessly, hoping to come across someone violating the
law. Just like other crimes, we will sometimes focus our
enforcement around problem areas, or intersections that have an
unusually high accident rate. Depending on the problem, we may
implement one of the following programs:
Radar Enforcement:
This is perhaps one of the most well
known of enforcement techniques and radar technology can accurately
measure the speed of an on-coming car. Occasionally, we will use a
speed trailer (a trailer that flashes the speed to on-coming cars) to
inform drivers of their speed as a sort of a warning, and no citations
are issued. We often use the speed trailer when we get a complaint
about speeders in a specific area to see if the area warrants a radar
enforcement program. If there are a lot of speeders, we will
implement a radar enforcement program on a street to break a pattern of
people speeding on the street.
DUI/Seatbelt/Car Seat/Driver's License Checkpoints:
Sometimes, you might see something that looks like a road block
ahead. Drivers must slow down and pass officers slowly so they may
look inside your car to ensure seatbelt and car seat compliance, or stop
if an officer suspects that a driver of a car had been consuming
alcoholic beverages. DUI (Driving While Under the Influence of
Alcohol) and failure to wear seat belts and utilize car safety seats
cause thousands of people to lose their lives each year. Further,
unlicensed drivers are involved in a high number of collisions, and most
of them are not insured as well. These drivers keep insurance
rates high for everyone and are unsafe drivers as well. The law
requires that we impound vehicles that are being driven by unlicensed
drivers to protect everyone!
Pedestrian Stings: Have you ever noticed that more and
more drivers ignore pedestrians in crosswalks because everyone seems to
be in a hurry these days? We have too. So occasionally, we will
have "undercover" officers pose as regular pedestrians and
attempt to cross the street at a crosswalk or at an intersection, where
pedestrians have the legal right-a-way. If a driver fails to stop
for the pedestrian, or worst yet, makes the pedestrian stop or move back
to avoid a collision, the driver is stopped and cited. So many of
these cited drivers claim that they never saw the pedestrian or were on
their cellular phone...both poor excuses for nearly hitting someone.
If you would like any kind of special enforcement done in your
neighborhood, please call (626) 744-4590 or
email
the webmaster.
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