Between July10 – August 5 officers from the La Porte Police Department worked 90 extra Operation Pull Over funded patrol hours. Sixty of these hours were dedicated to dangerous and aggressive driving patrols and 30 hours were dedicated to seat belt and child restraint patrols.
Officers wrote a total of 152 citations and 92 warnings. Chief among the citations were 65 citations for seat belt violations; 50 citations for speeding and five citations for Driving While Suspended. Citations were also issued for various other moving violations. Two arrests were made for OWI and three felony and three misdemeanor criminal arrests were made as well. The criminal arrests included Battery, Domestic Battery, Resisting Law Enforcement and Illegal Possession of a Syringe among other charges. One subject stopped for a traffic violation during an aggressive driving patrol was also detained on three warrants from other jurisdictions.
On one occasion in July, an officer working an aggressive driving patrol assisted the on-duty shift with a domestic call due to the call load demands at the time. The officer upon entering the house discovered a marijuana grow operation, notified the La Porte County Metro Operations Taskforce to investigate and assisted with the investigation as needed.
Operation Pull Over is a traffic safety grant program funded by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and administered by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. The goal of Operation Pull Over is to reduce traffic crashes injuries and fatalities by promoting passenger restraint use, and supporting impaired and dangerous driving enforcement.
For more information on Operation Pull Over and the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, please visit http://www.in.gov/cji.