10/22/09 - Obion County
Obion County
Stops Speeders
By: Stephanie Ryan
5:28 p.m.
If you speed through Obion
County, beware: all deputies with the Obion County Sheriff's
Department will soon have a new tool to catch people with a
lead foot. A High Visibility Grant from the Governor's
Highway Safety Office will pay for four mobile radar units.
Of the department's 12 cars,
eight already have radar, thanks to the same grant, which
the department has received the previous two years.
In the past, traffic enforcement
has not been an issue for deputies.
"As big as the county is, and as
many calls as we get, traffic enforcement has never been a
real big priority for the Sheriff's Office," Chief Deputy
Kent Treece said.
As the population has grown,
Treece said traffic enforcement has been a growing concern
for the department, but not because of revenue.
"The ratio of warning citations
versus court appearances is five to one," Treece said,
adding that traffic enforcement is a simple issue of safety.
"The secondary roads in Obion
County are somewhere in the vicinity of 700 miles, which
falls under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Department,
and without proper tools, it makes traffic enforcement very
difficult," Treece said.
Now that all 12 cars will have
radar, officers will not have to rely on "pacing," or
following a car for several miles and estimating its speed,
which officer say has not stood up in court.
Deputies also hope probably
cause stops based on speeding will lead into DUI, drug and
other arrests, which in turn, they believe, will make the
county safer.
Treece said he will apply for
the grant again next year.