The La Porte Police Department recently completed an aggressive and dangerous driving enforcement event which ran from March 14 – March 24. Prior to the event crash data from 2014 was analyzed to determine the ten most common contributing factors in crashes; the most dangerous intersections in terms of crashes; the most dangerous days of the week and the most dangerous hours of the day for crashes. This information was then disseminated to officers that were working the aggressive and dangerous driving patrols so they could concentrate their efforts where they would do the most good.
During the enforcement event officers worked 84.5 hours of extra patrols, 44.5 hours of which were at night. Officers working the patrols wrote 149 citations and 58 warnings. Among the citations were 84 for speeding; 20 for automatic signal/stop sign violations and failure to yield; 16 for seat belt violations; 4 for driving while suspended and 4 for operating with no license. The rest of the citations were for a variety of other traffic violations. Additionally officers made two arrests for DUI and one arrest for under aged drinking and also made two misdemeanor criminal arrests and one felony criminal arrest.
During our pre-event crash data analysis we determined signal/sign/ failure to yield violations and speed were factors in 39.15% of our crashes. We saw 104 combined citations for these factors during this enforcement period. “We run these enforcement events to raise public awareness regarding the role that everyone plays in determining how safe the streets are in our community. We ask all motorists to drive safely at all times. We will continue do everything we can do to stop those that do not obey the law and educate them through enforcement,” said Captain Tom Heath.
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 reducing traffic crashes injuries and fatalities by promoting passenger restraint use and supporting impaired and dangerous driving enforcement. You may learn more about Operation Pull Over, the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute and its other programs by visiting http://www.in.gov/cji.