INSIDE the Lakeland Police Department

Lakeland Police Conduct DUI Checkpoints

The Lakeland Police Department conducted a DUI checkpoint and several saturation patrols over the past weekend in an effort to remove impaired drivers from our roadways.

The checkpoint was held on Friday evening in the 700 block of Lake Miriam Drive. Over 700 vehicles were checked during 2 1/2 hours of enforcement in south Lakeland. One DUI arrest and one arrest for Felony Habitual Driving While License Suspended or Revoked were made during the checkpoint. Another 21 non-moving and 2 moving citations were issued by officers for various violations. One Possession of Marijuana arrest was also made during this event.

Saturation patrols on Thursday night in the area of South Florida Avenue, Old Road 37, and Edgewood Drive produced 4 DUI arrests, 4 criminal traffic charges, 16 speeding citations, and 8 moving citations.

A saturation patrol on Friday night after the checkpoint produced 3 more DUI arrests.

These enforcement initiatives are part of our participation in Florida's efforts to curb impaired driving just before and during the Labor Day holiday weekend. Our message is simple - Drunk Driving...Over the Limit...Under Arrest.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Lakeland Police to Conduct Awareness Program at Railroad Crossings

In conjunction with Operation Lifesaver, the Lakeland Police Department will be conducting a railroad crossing awareness mission in the city of Lakeland at three railroad crossings on Wednesday, August 29, 2007.

The three railroad crossings selected are:

• Wabash Avenue and Olive Street
• South Florida Avenue and Pine Street
• North Massachusetts Avenue and Pine Street

The exercise will occur in the morning from 7:30 AM to 10:30 AM and again in the afternoon from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM. Those participating will hand out fliers to motorists at the railroad crossing locations containing information about railroad crossing safety. Operation Lifesaver is a national, non-profit educational organization with a mission of reducing deaths and injuries from highway-rail grade crossing collisions and pedestrian rail trespass incidents. Spokesperson Gary Fitzpatrick of Operation Lifesaver will be in Lakeland for the event.

For additional information contact Jack Gillen at 863-834-6949.

School's Back: Safety is Everyone's Responsibility

Polk County schools are back in session, which means it's time for our traffic officers to once again focus their enforcement efforts around our numerous school zones. We urge all drivers to be aware of their surroundings as students walk or ride to school and wait around bus stops. Our thanks as well to the Lakeland Fire Department who have been out in force around our schools to remind drivers that school is back in session.

And this year we ask for one more thing...

Parents - please take a moment or two and discuss with your children the importance of them adhering to traffic safety as well. All too often our traffic tragedies are the result of a student darting into traffic or not looking before trying to cross a roadway. Drivers can only be so diligent in their efforts to watch out for students. This year let's also encourage our students and parents to share the responsibility for pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

Here's to another safe school year for our students and community.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Traffic Safety: Something's Working in Lakeland

One of the more difficult aspects of measuring police performance is to determine if what you are doing is really working in the field. We refer to this as measuring outcomes versus outputs.

Unlike a sterile science lab, cops are often unable to use the basic scientific method of measuring conditions before hand, applying some type of intervention, and then measuring things afterward do determine if what you did made a difference. And because we try so many things at once, it is difficult to say which strategy (if any) changed things or if chance simply occurred. (Apologies to all of my former science teachers and statistics professors for simplifying this explanation.)

Take traffic safety for instance...

We rely on the Three Es - Education, Engineering, and Enforcement - to improve traffic safety in Lakeland. One of the ways we determine our success is the by the number traffic crashes reported to the police. The theory goes something like this; you educate drivers, you design safety roadway systems, and you give tickets to traffic violators. In the end we hope to have less crashes today than yesterday.

Something is working in Lakeland...

According to data from our CAD system, our Planning and Research Section reports traffic crashes of all types (from the least serious to the most serious) are down 4.6% for the first seven months of 2007 as compared to the same period last year. P&R examined data from the City of Lakeland's Traffic Operations for the more serious crashes that result in a report being written during the first six months of the year. That analysis found the more serious crashes in 2007 were down 17% from 2006 and estimated amount of property damage down 9%.

Think about it - more drivers on the roads and less crashes. Whether it's education, engineering, or enforcement, something is working in Lakeland.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Railroad Crossing Safety

Bill Rufty has a good article in Sunday morning's Ledger newspaper on railroad crossing safety. In it he writes about a railroad safety program known as "Operation Life Saver".

"The railroad industry has a major safety program known as "Operation Life Saver," said CSX spokesman Gary Sease. Railroad employees, retired rail employees and railroad clubs speak to school and civic groups and to law enforcement personnel on the dangers of trying to beat trains, especially the fact that it takes up to a mile for a heavily loaded freight train to stop."

In case you are interested in learning more about "Operation Life Saver", here is a link to the Florida program's web site. There you will find some interesting facts about railroad crossing safety. The national site is found here. You will find even more information and educational programs for your use in teaching young drivers about this dangerous hazard.

Please take a moment to discuss this topic with your young drivers - and for that matter everyone young and old so we can avoid anymore tragedies like this past week.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

When Are Turn Signals Required?

Gabrielle Finley, a police reporter at The Ledger, has a post on her blog - Polk 911 - in which she asks why drivers do not use their turn signals. Good question - cops wonder the same thing - and here is the answer as to when a turn signal is required by law.

Per Florida Statute 316.155 -

316.155  When signal required.--

(1)  No person may turn a vehicle from a direct course upon a highway unless and until such movement can be made with reasonable safety, and then only after giving an appropriate signal in the manner hereinafter provided, in the event any other vehicle may be affected by the movement.

(2)  A signal of intention to turn right or left must be given continuously during not less than the last 100 feet traveled by the vehicle before turning, except that such a signal by hand or arm need not be given continuously by a bicyclist if the hand is needed in the control or operation of the bicycle.

(3)  No person may stop or suddenly decrease the speed of a vehicle without first giving an appropriate signal in the manner provided herein to the driver of any vehicle immediately to the rear, when there is opportunity to give such signal.

(4)  The signals provided for in s. 316.156 shall be used to indicate an intention to turn and may not, except as provided in s. 316.2397, be flashed on one side only on a parked or disabled vehicle or flashed as a courtesy or "do pass" signal to operators of other vehicles approaching from the rear.

(5)  A violation of this section is a noncriminal traffic infraction, punishable as a moving violation as provided in chapter 318.

It is a common misperception among drivers that signals are required whenever a driver makes a turn or changes lanes. While it is a good idea to use your turn signal whenever you are making a turn or changing lane, it is only required by statute when the turn or lane change may affect another vehicle.

We strongly encourage all drivers to get into the habit of using their turn signals whenever turning or changing lanes.

As for why drivers do not use signal turns when they are required to do so - well that is one of the great mysteries of the universe for which there may never be a good answer.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

The Costs of Bad Driving Go Up

The cost for driving badly went up slightly as of July 1st when new fines for traffic violations went into effect. It is going to cost you a little more if you violate the traffic laws. However, it is not going to cost quite as much as the Legislature planned thanks to a veto by Governor Crist.

So how much will it cost you? Here is a quick summary:

• Moving violation - $121.50
• Non-moving violation - $74.50
• Speeding (depending on the speed) - $86.50 - $311.50
• Speeding in a school or construction zone - $111.50 - $561.50
• Red light running - $186.50

We previously posted information about how much revenue the police department gets from traffic fines. The Legislature passed Senate Bill 1030 during this year's session that would have increased the amount of training dollars to be allocated from traffic citations and other non-criminal fines from $2.00 to $4.00. On June 28, 2007, Governor Crist vetoed the bill by noting that increasing fines for criminal violators seemed fair but do to the same for non-criminal violations was an unreasonable cost to Floridians. As such, our portion of a traffic citation remains at $2.00 to be used for training programs under F/S 938.15.

We try not to view traffic citations as a revenue-creating program for government. Fines are intended to be a deterrent rather than income to operate our budgets. Not every state feels the same way.

In his blog over at The Ledger, Bill Blocher noted that Virginia imposed an additional hefty civil fine on Virginia residents by adding as much as $1,050 on top of the original traffic fine cost. This is anticipated to bring in an extra $65 million to $120 million next year. These fines do not, thank goodness, apply to citations issued to non-Virginia residents ticketed while driving in that state.

The bottom line here - slow down and obey the rules if you want to avoid traffic fines.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

School Zone Enforcement Efforts: Part II

Officers from the Traffic Unit concentrated their enforcement efforts on several local school zones yesterday. Our previous school zone enforcement efforts during April netted a total of 18 speeders during morning and afternoon hours. We caught a few more speeders this time.

Traffic officers report at total of 39 drivers were stopped and ticketed for speeding in posted school zones before school started and after school ended for the day.

Officers set up in the following school zones:

• Carlton Palmore Elementary
• North Lakeland Elementary
• Lime Street Elementary
• Cleveland Court Elementary
• 1400 E. Main Street
• 2500 S. Lincoln Avenue

The regular school year has a couple more weeks left. Students' last day of school is May 22. We urge drivers to continue safe driving habits and be aware of school zone speed limits when the amber lights are flashing. We plan to hold another enforcement campaign before the school year is out.

Our students deserve our undivided attention on the roadways when they are going to school and returning home - please drive carefully.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Traffic Citations: A Cash Windfall for Police?

From time to time I get asked how much "we make" off a traffic ticket. The suggestion is the police receive a great deal of money from traffic fines, which serves as a financial incentive to write more tickets. Thus, people want to know what the police department receives in the way of revenue from fines levied for traffic infractions, say from a $177.50 moving infraction for failing to stop at a traffic signal. The bottom line is - not much at all.

The distribution of traffic fines is regulated by Florida Statute 318.18 and 318.21. These laws clearly describe where certain portions of a traffic fine are to be distributed. For instance, a set amount goes to the Child Welfare Trust Fund ($1.00) and the Juvenile Justice Trust Fund ($1.00). Other distributions are by percentage: 20.6% to the State's General Fund, 7.2% to the Emergency Medical Services fund, 8.2% to the Brain & Spinal Cord fund, etc. The list is quite lengthy.

Citations issued in a municipality allocate 50.8% of the fine to the city's General Fund (F/S 318.21(2)(g)2). Perhaps in some small way you can say "we", meaning the police, get something back from these fines. Officers, however, do not see it that way.

And the portion that goes directly to the police department - the part that "we make" - is only $2.00 per ticket with these funds required to pay for law enforcement training (per Florida Statute 938.15 and 318.18(1)(d). You can figure we will get around $40,000 a year from traffic fines (give or take) - not much out of a $30 million budget. Suffice to say it's no where near enough to cover our total training costs each year.

As you can see, there is not a lot of financial inducement for officers to write tickets from the perspective of what "we make". Rather, our inducement is the hope that enforcement efforts, and the accompanying fines that violators must pay, become an incentive for drivers to obey our traffic laws.

So here is our question - should the police receive a greater portion of traffic fines as an incentive to write more tickets? Or, should more money from a traffic fine be paid for additional police training expenses? Or, do the police already get enough? We are curious to know what you think.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

(Source: Distribution Schedule of Court-Related Filing Fees, Service Charges, Costs, and Fines, p. 12, Florida Association of Clerks, Inc. - July 1, 2006)