Greeley police hope to get drivers across the city to slow down with the addition of two minivans equipped with cameras to automatically monitor and record speeding violations.
The vans — which first hit Greeley’s streets May 15 — capture images of offenders’ license plates and record a six-second video of the speeding violation.
“We get more complaints about traffic safety issues than anything else,” said Commander Mike Heck, who oversees Greeley’s traffic unit. “This is a force multiplier that allows officers to respond to other calls or patrol elsewhere while these vans are out in certain areas to enforce the speed limit.”
The department is issuing warnings for the first 30 days of the rollout — as is required by state law — but Heck said they plan to start sending out actual tickets June 15, barring any setbacks.
Senate Bill 23-200, titled “Automated Vehicle Identification Systems,” says the department must announce the program on its website 30 days ahead of the launch date and only issue warnings for the first 30 days after the program is deployed.
The law also lays out several other guidelines for implementing a program such as Greeley’s.
To give out tickets from the vans, state law requires that they be parked within a school zone, within a residential neighborhood, within a maintenance, construction or repair zone or along a street that borders a municipal park.
The law also allows for certain corridors within a city to be designated as “automated vehicle identification corridors,” meaning, in this case, the Greeley City Council can approve additional areas in which the department could issue tickets from the vans.
To designate areas as corridors, the department must compile five-year data on the corridor — Heck said this could include number and severity of crashes, careless driving, reckless driving and speeding tickets issued, as well as citizen complaints — and take that information to the city council for approval.
To designate areas of state highways — such as the U.S. 34 Bypass and 10th Street — as corridors, the department and city also need to follow a similar process to gain approval from the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado State Patrol.
“The legislation doesn’t say, like, you have to have 500 complaints and 500 careless driving tickets and 500 crashes at a certain area,” Heck said. “They really just say, collect the data, analyze it yourself and see if it fits a need for your community.”
At a June 3 city council meeting, the department will pitch its recommendations for corridors, which Heck expects to greatly expand where the vans can be parked.
“It’s quite a large area in Greeley,” Heck said of the proposed corridors. “Basically all the major roadways that don’t fit within that Senate bill.”
Once a corridor is approved, the department must post signs notifying drivers at least 300 feet before the beginning of the corridor, as well as signs at least 300 feet before where the mobile unit itself is parked.
“There’s no doubt, if you’re paying attention, you should not be getting a ticket from these,” Heck said. “Even if you decide to speed, if you’re paying attention, you should not be getting a ticket.”
The city is required by law to publish a report on its website disclosing the number of citations and revenue generated by approved corridors, though there’s no timeline on when the report must be completed.
The department hired seven technicians earlier this year to staff the two vans from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week — minus two eight-hour blocks for which the technicians’ schedules wouldn’t allow.
A computer and additional radar equipment in the back of a new Greeley police minivan parked Monday, May 19 at the Greeley Police Department. The van is one of two rolled out last week by the department for its Mobile Speed Photo Safety Program. (Chris Bolin/Staff Reporter)Of the seven technicians, four had worked as police officers. Three of them served with the Greeley Police Department, Heck said.
Members of the public are welcome to approach the technicians while on the job, but Heck said they aren’t going to tolerate harassment or other negative behavior.
“If somebody comes up and wants to talk about the van, it’s up to their discretion, depending on that person’s, let’s say, hostility — or lack of hostility — to have a conversation with them and talk about the van and the program and our goals. Or to drive away,” he said.
Once the middle of June rolls around, drivers who are caught speeding by one of the vans can expect a ticket in the mail … maybe.
Heck said no tickets — or even warnings — will be issued for drivers going less than 5 mph over. And those caught going between 5 and 10 over the speed limit will receive a warning the first time. A ticket will only be issued if they are caught again by one of the vans.
“Do I like that? No,” Heck said. “Because I think if you’re going 7, 8, 9 miles an hour over, you probably deserve a ticket. But we’re not going to try to hide anything or disguise it.”
For drivers caught going less than 25 mph over, tickets will be $40. If the violation occurs in a school or construction zone, that doubles to $80.
If caught going 10-19 mph over by an officer, the driver is looking at a $155 price tag and four points on their license. Bump that up to 20-39 mph over, and the cost is $205 and six points.
Any speeding violations of more than 25 mph over the limit — whether caught by an officer or van — can be upgraded to a misdemeanor instead of just a traffic infraction and can carry much steeper penalties.
The citation mailed out will include a picture of the vehicle’s front and back license plates — if they have both — as well as a way to view a six-second video of the alleged violation.
For in-state offenders, the ticket must be sent within 30 days of the speeding violation. That doubles to 60 days for vehicles registered outside of Colorado.
And if drivers believe they were wrongly cited, they have the opportunity to appeal the ticket.
“There’s a way to contest it,” Heck said. “So if you feel like you weren’t in violation, you can fill out an online form and contest the violation.”
From there, two designated “referees” will review the case. Depending on what they see, they can either dismiss the violation or set a court date for the driver to further dispute the ticket.
“What we hope though, is that people take responsibility and say, ‘You know what, you got me. Maybe I should slow down next time,’ ” Heck said.
Small sample size
From about 7 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. Monday, one of the vans was parked at 47th Avenue and 4th Street — a hotspot for traffic complaints, Heck said.
In just under two hours, Heck said about 600 vehicles passed by the van. Of those 600, Heck said 10 drivers were caught going more than 10 mph over the limit.
He said those numbers were generally on par with what the department has seen in the three-plus days the vans had been deployed at that time.
“Keep in mind, we’re deploying these right now in big open roadways where there is a lot of traffic and a lot of visibility,” Heck said. “Because we want people to see these. We want people to know about these and to be talking about these.”
Anyone with questions about the program can contact Heck at 970-350-9617.
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