Should Sheriffs be allowed to use radar?

[IGID]

Should the law be changed to allow Sheriffs to use radar? It comes up every year and never makes it out of committee. The money would go to the States General fund and all the Sheriffs get out of it would be the amount of reimbursement for purchasing the units. For all you nay sayers, what about in school zones in the county? Wouldn't that make sense? What do you think?

[aaron]

I don't see speeding as a huge problem for law enforcement in 2006. I can't say the same for drunk driving, robberies, homicides, and drug trafficking.

[ynotme297]

I don't see speeding as a huge problem for law enforcement in 2006. I can't say the same for drunk driving, robberies, homicides, and drug trafficking.
arron, i`m suprised at you. you really need to get out more. try getting out on 49, say about 4:30-5:30am. some cars are doing 60-65mph coming through h-burg. i was coming home the other morning and doing the speed limit of 65. this pickup truck came by me so fast that he just looked like a blur. out in the county people don`t think twice about speeding past a deputy,b/c they know he doesn`t have radar. now there are a few counties in the state that does have them. billy mcgee has been trying to get radar ever since he came into office, but i guess the state is afraid of speed traps like they used to have in Wilmer Ala. the county can`t have it, but a one horse town like new augusta can and does have it. speeding is also another tool to catch, drunks, felons, and dope smugglers. this is just my humble thoughts.

[IGID]

I have to agree with ynotme. It's not about just speeding. There are up to 10 times more Deputies that are street cops than Investigators in most Sheriffs Offices and Investigators have their place looking into specific crimes, but more criminals and wanted person are caught on routine traffic stops than any other way and radar is just another tool in the arsenal.

[R1ZOOM]

Yes deputies should be able to run radar. To say that they just want to pad their budgets is rediculous. If an officer was hell bent on writing tickets he could sit at any given stop sign and wite tickets all day long, or write people for improper lane changes, or all of the people that run the red lights in the left turn lane so that they don't have to wait on the light again. Remember, deputies can write tickets in the city and county, some people are actually not aware of this. To say deputies just want to run radar as an excuse to write tickets is stupid. Think about all of the people killed in accidents on county roads...usually it because they are driving way too fast. What deterrent to they have to slow down? By not allowing deputies to run radar the legislature is just allowing more crime to be committed by removing a method of probable cause for stops and allowing more citizens to be killed on Mississippi's rural roadways from high speed accidents.

[aaron]

arron, i`m suprised at you. you really need to get out more. try getting out on 49, say about 4:30-5:30am. some cars are doing 60-65mph coming through h-burg.

See, and the city cops have radar and nothing is solved here. How will the sheriffs stop speeding in an entire county just by having radar? I'm sure a lot of crimes are stopped by pulling someone over for speeding, but that's pure coincidental. Sheriffs could probably do just as much good holding routine traffic stops in the county. That would cost the taxpayers an extra $0 dollars. To be honest, I'm more for hidden computerized speed traps than putting more power into a person that could be corrupted.

[IGID]

Aaron, I respect different opinions, but you're missing the point. There is no way all speeding will be stopped anywhere, but do you see people speeding at Hardy and 21 st. in the morning? What about Lincoln and 40 th.? No. Why? Because they know the Police use radar and write expensive tickets in school zones. The counties have just as many schools and it's pointless to write a ticket for speeding in a school zone because when it gets to court it's your word against his and it doesn't always go in the cops favor. It's a shame that it's going to take a child to be killed in a school zone or a loved one to be killed by a speeding teenager on a county road to get the Legislatures attention.

[aaron]

You can put a camera speed trap in that school zone that will be guaranteed to catch speeders, and therefore, guaranteed to slow people down. As far as county roads, there are several states with a 75 mph speed limit on rural highways because it's been studied and deemed safe.

The bottom line is, I have heard about an alarm company that called the police about a break in on a business in Oak Grove, and the county police take 30-40 minutes to get there. I just don't think they need more responsibility, they obviously have their hands full. If your going to invest more money into stopping speeding, there are better ways to do it than radar.

[IGID]

Isn't America great? These alarm companies don't have a problem taking 20.00 to 30.00 a month from people, but they don't donate or supply the Police with anything and when someones alarm goes off every week and it's a false alarm eveytime, you start to take your time getting there. You can't endanger the lives of the people you are supposed to protect by racing to someones alarm that goes off all the time. We'd rather take a burglary report than be sued in Federal Court for Negligence in causing a wreck that killed somebody. HPD bills the people for false alarms, but Sheriffs do not. Maybe we should. As far as camera operated radar goes, it's a great idea except it tickets the vehicle, not the driver and if you don't think traffic court day is a mess already, lets see them try to fine the owner of a car when they weren't driving.

[R1ZOOM]

Aaron I don't know if you know how many false alarm calls there are, but the numbers would probably shock you if you were to pull a month's worth of records and trend the number of false alarms versus legitimate alarm calls. Police waste more time on false alarms than the average citizen would ever believe.

[ynotme297]

sheriff mcgee will be the first one to tell you that his men are not traffic cops. they do not sit hiding at stop signs waiting for someone to run it. in the first place, there are only 3 deputies to cover the entire county per shift. they have bigger and better things to do than work traffic. but there are times that it is needed. when people call in and complain about speeding in thier neighborhoods,he will send his deputies to work the area just by stopping them and checking them out. slow them down so to speak. they can`t write speeding tickets, but they can cite you for careless driving. radar would be a great help in times like this. radar will slow folks down in some cases, but stop it completely, no it will never do that. it is just another tool.

[Lylabean]

Yes they should have radar..I use to live on oak grove road where hardly anyone obeys the speed limit. The left hand turn to our apartment was right after a curve...i was always worried someone who come up racing behind me and rear end me before I could get out of the road.

Lynn

[IGID]

Just the knowledge that they have radar would slow the general public down to some degree. Just as it does on the highways and city streets.

[Conveyor Belt]

3 deputies per shift is the exact reason radar should not be allowed. You cannot have 1 deputy in the position to not respond to a call. The miles of roads in the county areas far exceeds the number of miles of roads in the city areas. The math doesn't work for me. It seems as if you'll create a beauracracy to deal with the problem. Beauracracy in any form is bad.

[Conveyor Belt]

I have no objection to sheriff's department officers having radar. If it can slow down the traffic on H. 589, 24 around the Oak Grove schools and Old 11 - I'd be pleased as punch.

If the speeding is occuring on a MS highway, outside of the city boundaries, then the MS Highway patrol, who is allowed to use radar, can monitor the area.

[IGID]

The chances of MHP running radrar on that highway are slim and none. Troop J has to cover 9 counties and if you knew how many were out working at one time, you'd be shocked, especially at night.

[Conveyor Belt]

I probably wouldn't be. I don't expect much from services outside of the cities. I don't expect much from them inside, either. I think law enforcement has more important things to do other than to enforce speed limits. Speeding is a major cause to accidents. But to curb this, there would have to be radar on every mile of every road. Even then, I believe people would break the law.

[ynotme297]

the highway patrol only works state highways, not county roads. last time i looked, there far more county roads than state. folks, radar is not the answer, as i`ve said many times, it is a tool to be used for other things. speeding on county and back roads has increased as have the accidents. if folks knew that the s.o. had radar, just that knowledge alone would tend to slow them down in most cases. some people will never learn no matter what you do.

[Claire Voyent]

I sense that the Sheriffs' desire to use radar will not materialize this year.

[mikedabiker]

Not ever small city or town can set up radar. Theres' a population requirement that must first be met. Same law limits the highway patrol from radar in the larger cities like hattiesburg or jackson. Kinda a turf issue I guess. I don't remember the code section but it does exist.

[Biggie]

Dude you right. A highway patrol pulled me over in the Hattiesburg City limits and the dude told me I was speeding, expired tag and inspection sticker out. He told me I had to obey the law and pay my bills just like him. Then he told me to get the hell out of here (no ticket). I guess he couldn't write one cause as pissed off as he was I don't think he would have let me go. Biggie went and took care of the tag and sticker the next day.

[IGID]

Biggie, you're lucky. The law says they can't run radar in the city limits, but he could have written you a ticket for the tag and inspection sticker if you were on a highway inside a city limits or if he was on duty and going from hwy 49 to highway 59 via Hardy St., he can pull you over on Hardy St.. Most don't, but they can if they feel like it.

[IGID]

Re-reading this thread, Claire says they won't get radar this year and by her track record, look out. We better pay attention to how fast we be going.

[Biggie]

He pulled me over right in front of Wesley Medical Center off 98. Man I ain't never had no MHP let me go before.

[IGID]

He must have like them new rims you was braggin to Noway about. Post a pic.

[Biggie]

This rain clears up I'm gonna take a pic

[wilebill]

Looks like the legislature agreed with the MH folks. :smt102

[IGID]

Wilebill, the Legislature didn't even get a chance to look at it and vote on it. It passed easily in the Senate and went to the House Transportation Committee and one person (1) didn't think it would pass and he said he didn't like to submit bills that have a chance of not passing, so he let it die in committee. How about letting the Legislature give it a up or down instead of just one person deciding he doesn't like it and letting it die? I'll say it again. It's a shame that one of the legislatures loved ones are going to have to die on a county road for them to realize speeding in the county is a serious problem. Forrest County has one of the highest rates of death and serious injuries per mile of road in the state.

[Biggie]

Better a Radar Gun than a Glock.

[IGID]

Maybe so, but I think the lesson learned here is, if you pull your piece of $hit gat on the popo, you'd better be prepared to meet your God.

[jockpiper]

I think it should be allowed. Law enforcement needs all the tools they can get their hands on. Funny how the legislature can let something like this die in committee and yet noone up there has the minerals to say what they think about the flag issue. They left that one to the peeps to vote on. ( I thought I lived in a representative democracy?) The static camera is a good idea, however because we live in a state that only requires one tag on the vehicle (on the rear) wouldn't you have to have two cameras- one to take a pic of the driver and annotate the speed and another facing the other way to get the tag. Without the tag # you can take all the pics u want and never catch anybody.

[SxyHubLady]

I think all patrol cars should have radar guns in them. City, county and Highway. My bestfriend is a cop in Jackson and he had to buy his radar for his car. I live on Old Hwy 24 and there's at least 2 wrecks a week out here. It's because of people flying around the curves out here.

[GoingHome]

It troubles me that one person kept a potentially life saving tool from being put in law enforcement's hands. I have read all these comments about why radar should not be allowed and none of them makes sense to me. I read the proposed bill and the money from the tickets that county sheriff's write will go into the state general fund and not the individual county general fund. Also someone answer this question for me. If the Sheriff abuses radar don't you think voters will vote him out from office? It suprises me that Sheriff's would want radar considering the political fallout it could cause. I would love to know the guys name who heads the transportation committee. I want to call him and see if he will even listen to my gripes

[CrackHead]

I say give them radars and what ever else they need to do the job.

[IGID]

Bill Miles

[3DPiper]

http://cgi.ebay.com/MPH-K55-POLICE-RADAR-GUN-DUAL-ANTENNA-CAPABLE-KUSTOM_W0QQitemZ7752658032QQcategoryZ395QQrdZ1QQcm dZViewItem

-Matthew

[tripp]

Interesting post... This debate has been going on for years.

[IGID]

It sure has tripp. If it wasn't for 1 person, it would have passed this year. Most Legislators feel like if 1 agency can use it, all should be able to use it if they want. Not all agencies even want to. When it does pass, not all Sheriffs will use it. It's just a tool, not a cure-all.

[Booshay]

Yeah I think the sheriffs should be able to use radar. I have to be honest here...I do speed more often in the county because I know that dont have it. I think if they did, I'd be a little bit slower and careful about my speed. When I do speed its only about 5 or 10 over...I know this makes a big difference in a crash and I'm not saying its ok for me to do it....but theres alot of kids and younger drivers who go ALOT faster than that. I hope they dont do what I did. I learned my lesson the hard way...crashing a car, getting 20 stitches in my thick head and $2500 in hospital bills. I say let sheriffs have the radar, its a tool, and possibly a lifesaver.

[lamarrebel]

Realistically speaking, I don't think sheriff's having radar in Mississippi will happen so long as Billy McCoy is speaker. As Speaker, he appoints Committe chairs and assigns bills to Committees. Rep. Bill Miles, who chairs the Transportation Committee, has refused to bring the radar bill up in his committee each year.