San Carlos Police to Permanently Increase Traffic Enforcement.

July 31, 2012

Dedicated Traffic Deputy.

If you're on the City of San Carlos email thread, then you probably saw the announcement this morning that the city has budgeted the necessary funds to hire a full-time traffic deputy to help address the rampant traffic problems (speeding, aggressive driving) that continue to plague the streets of San Carlos.  The email is pasted below for your reference.

I think this is fantastic news, and a big step in the right direction to get people to slow down on our city streets.  With the sheer increase in the number of children in our city, there's a tragedy just looking for a place to happen.  Just six months ago, my parked car (along with my neighbor's car) was completely totaled by a speeding 21-year old driver — at 6:00 in the morning!   The driver narrowly missed hitting a pedestrian on the sidewalk who was walking her dog in the wrong place at the wrong time.  According to the tests conducted at the scene, it didn't take a genius to figure out that this upstanding citizen was coming back from a night of partying.

Slow Down!

Congrats to San Carlos Bureau Chief Greg Rothaus and the City Council for pushing this through.   Having lived in San Carlos for the past 23 years, I think this is one of the biggest problems facing the city today, and I'm pleased to see the aggressive steps that have been taken to address it.

For those of you who did not see the update, here it is:

The San Carlos City Council recently passed a budget that included an additional full time, dedicated Traffic Deputy to enforce traffic laws in the community.  This action was taken after a steady stream of complaints came pouring in about driver behavior within the City.  The new Traffic Deputy is now on the streets and the extra enforcement is in full swing.

“Our Council heard the community loud and clear and took action to clean up driver behavior,” said San Carlos Bureau Chief Captain Greg Rothaus.  “With two deputies dedicated strictly to traffic enforcement, we are now positioned better than most cities our size to take action against motorists whose driving behavior puts others at risk.”

The two dedicated Traffic Deputies will be deployed using new strategies to target both the morning and evening commutes.  Using a “zero tolerance” approach to traffic violations, deputies will concentrate their efforts on the most hazardous of violations such as speeding and failure to yield to pedestrians.  Cell phone usage while driving and other distracting behaviors will also be targeted.

Each Traffic Deputy is equipped with both radar and laser speed detectors and the deputies are fully trained in this equipment.  When school re-opens in August, the San Carlos Police Bureau plans to be there with a heavy emphasis on traffic safety during the time children arrive and leave school.

“For those who drive safely and obey traffic laws, there is nothing to worry about with this increased enforcement,” said Captain Rothaus.  “For all the others, I’d recommend toning it down starting immediately.”

 Got a Traffic Issue?

If you've got a chronic traffic problem that the Department should know about, contact traffic sergeant Steve Pettit with the details, and they'll get it in the queue for enforcement.

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3 Comments

  1. Michael on August 1, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    This is good news.

    Not sure what “permanent” means but any help we can get to remedy the careless speeders, self-involved cellphone addicts and the other special people who think the laws don’t apply to them is OK in my book.



  2. Chuck Gillooley on August 1, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    Permanent, as in a paid, full-time position (according to the press release).



  3. Michael on August 2, 2012 at 5:10 pm

    Thanks Chuck; as long as we can have them, it is defintiely a good thing. Hope your neighbors {and cars} are safer on your street with this in place as well as the rest of us. Whatever happened to the kid that hit your car?



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