Police Use Electronic Display To Curb Speeding

By Andrew Gorosko

While driving through town, motorists eventually will encounter the newest “member” of the police department, standing silently by the roadside, electronically displaying their travel speed, as well as the area’s posted speed limit.

The police’s new radar-based speed display will be used in parts of town where high travel speeds are a problem to remind drivers to obey the posted speed limit, said Sergeant Christopher Vanghele.

The 1,500-pound speed display is housed in a trailered five-foot-tall white steel box. A radar-based speed-measuring device mounted within the steel box is aimed at approaching traffic. As a vehicle approaches the device, its oncoming speed is displayed in large, bright electronic numerals, alerting the driver and anyone else who happens to be in the area how fast that vehicle is traveling.

The speed device may be programmed to have those numerals repeatedly flash when vehicles are driving a certain speed above the speed limit. The device also can be programmed to flash a strobe light when vehicles are traveling well above the posted limit.

In the past, police used a smaller, simpler speed display, which was mounted atop a police car’s trunk lid to alert motorists of their travel speed.

Since obtaining the speed display device recently, police have posted it in front of the police station on South Main Street, on Walnut Tree Hill Road near Walnut Tree Village, and on Main Street across from Edmond Town Hall, among other spots.

The speed display is an attention-getting device, Sgt Vanghele said. “It’s a big deterrent,” he said.

Such a device will pay for itself in terms of police manpower, he said. The unit’s rugged design will allow it to be used throughout the year, he said. It may be operated both daytime and nighttime, he added.

The speed display provides another way that police can curb speeding on local roads, he said.

“When people see this, I think it hits home,” Sgt Vanghele said.

Police receive many complaints from residents about speeding all across town, he noted, adding that positioning the speed display in those areas is intended to deter such speeds. The display will be anchored in a location that is off the roadway when in use.

Prime locations for the device include areas near schools, as well as main roads, Sgt Vanghele said. Cut-through roads, or those streets that motorists use as shortcuts, have particular speeding problems because people use those routes to cut down travel times, he noted.

Currituck Road is such a major shortcut, which drivers use to cut travel time between Hawleyville and the town center, instead of driving on Route 25.

Other high-speed areas where the speed display should prove useful may include Poverty Hollow Road and Riverside Road.

“Most people who are speeding have their minds on where they’re going, not on how fast they’re going,” the sergeant said.

Sgt Vanghele said he expects that the speed display will be heavily used by police.

The display cost approximately $14,000. Four-fifths of the cost was covered with grant money, with the remainder covered by the town.