Local police, MUPD see drop in speeding tickets

Highway patrol is writing fewer tickets due to new medians.

By Katie Moritz

Published Feb. 5, 2009

Across the state, speeding and other traffic tickets have decreased over the past years, a trend mirrored in Columbia and on campus.

Traffic violation tickets are down on campus. In 2007, 3,242 traffic violators were ticketed, compared to the 2,231 traffic tickets issued in 2008, according to MU Police Department statistics.

"We set very high traffic enforcement to make sure our community is safe," MUPD Capt. Brian Weimer said. "We look at complaints and issues and that's how we establish traffic laws."

Weimer said there is no specific reason why fewer tickets were issued last year than the year before.

"There's times the numbers are up and times when they're down," Weimer said.

Despite the large freshman class this year and the fact that MU is a residential campus, Weimer said the number of traffic tickets is unaffected.

"There's still a large amount of traffic on campus," Weimer said.

MUPD does not have a separate traffic unit. All police officers are responsible for writing and distributing tickets on campus.

While speeding tickets have decreased in Columbia as well, there is a specific reason. Unfortunately, the decrease in tickets in Columbia isn't because people are being safer when they drive, Columbia Police Department Capt. Zim Schwartze said.

The decrease in tickets from 2006 and 2007 to 2008 is a result of vacant positions within Columbia's police force.

"We have several officers in the department whose primary focuses are to enforce traffic laws and write tickets," Schwartze said. "In 2008, one of those officer positions was open and was not filled for eight months."

Although this vacancy was filled, there is still a motorcycle position open on the force.

The lack of enough police officers has taken its toll on the amount of traffic enforcement the department can handle. Police officers are needed to answer calls for service, Schwartze said.

"Beat officers are answering more calls for service. They don't have the luxury or the time to make traffic stops as in the past," Schwartze said.

On state highways, tickets are down for a very different reason.

"The cable barriers that are designed to prevent crossover crashes have slowed down the number of speeding tickets," Missouri State Highway Patrol Lt. John Hotz said.

Hotz said the drop in speeding tickets is because it is more difficult for patrol cars to turn around on the interstates with the new barriers.

Speeding tickets across Missouri have decreased steadily from 139,000 in 2005 to 128,082 in 2006 and 113, 273 in 2007, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol data. The data for 2008 has not been compiled yet.

Nationwide traffic tickets are on the rise however, Schwartze said.

"People think the government is trying to get more money with the bad economy," Schwartze said. "We would prefer that they all slow down, and not get any tickets at all."