The Sturgeon Bay Police Department and the Door County Sheriff’s Department have completed their first month of participation in their 2012 Seatbelt Taskforce Deployments, which is funded through a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Safety. Door County is one of four counties in the state and the only one in Northeast Wisconsin to receive this pilot grant.
The goal of the grant is to build and document a model high visibility enforcement program to ensure compliance with Wisconsin’s mandatory seatbelt law and increase highway safety during the summer tourist season. The grant allows for up to 30 saturation deployments in the county through September 30. Each deployment last four hours with five officers assigned to traffic enforcement, with two officers provided by the Sturgeon Bay Police Department and three officers from the Door County Sheriff’s Department.
Lt. Farley of the Door County Sheriff’s Office advised that County Deputies issued 58 Seat Belt Citations during the May deployments. “Our goal is to increase awareness of seat belt usage and to end the senseless tragedies on our streets and highways by reducing the number of preventable traffic deaths to Zero in Wisconsin, and we need everyone to do their part by buckling up.”
Sgt. Chad Hougaard of the Sturgeon Bay Police Department reports, “Our main focus may be seatbelt violations, but enforcement of all traffic laws occur. On our May 18 deployment, a city officer stopped a vehicle for speeding on the highway, which led to a passenger in the vehicle being arrested for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.”
In May, there were five deployments with the following results:
· 237 traffic stops were made during the deployments that covered 20 hours.
· 154 traffic citations were issued: 99 Seatbelt
1 Child safety restraint
22 Speeding
2 OAR (operate after revocation) and OWS (operate while suspended)
1 Vehicle registration
29 Miscellaneous violations
(i.e.: stop sign / no insurance)
· 127 traffic warnings were issued: 94 Speeding
4 Vehicle registration
12 Vehicle equipment
17 Miscellaneous violations
· 2 non-traffic arrests from the stops: 1 Possession of marijuana
1 Possession of drug paraphernalia
For further information about these deployments, please contact:
1) Michael Panosh: regional program manager for WSP Bureau of Transportation Safety
(920) 683-4960
2) Lt. Jeff Farley
