You’re cruising down the interstate. Maybe you’re going a little bit faster than you should be. Maybe not. But if you catch a glimpse of a state trooper’s cruiser, you probably ease up on the gas, just in case.
It might be that you know the Pennsylvania state police use radar to track speed and thus to write tickets.
But local police? They aren’t allowed to use radar.
Pennsylvania has long been the only state where municipal police aren’t trusted with radar guns. Local authorities have to use less efficient and less accurate methods to try to catch speeders. But why? One could argue that the consequences of going 20 mph over the speed limit in a residential neighborhood would be more significant and possibly catastrophic than the same difference on a straight stretch of highway.
So why hamper the officers tasked with maintaining that safety?
It comes down to money.
For 60 years, the state Legislature has come down on the side of not trusting local government. Give them a radar gun, they have argued, and speed traps will blossom in an attempt to pad the local budget with $150 tickets.
A cynical person might suggest that sounds a little defensive. Is that why the state uses radar? Surely not.
But almost every session, the topic comes up for a vote again, with lawmakers putting it out there and local officers holding their breath — yet prepared to be disappointed once again.
On Tuesday, it happened again. The Pennsylvania Senate voted 49-1 to allow municipal departments to use radar. It still placed a focus on the money collected, limiting the revenue to 10% of a municipality’s budget. From there, it heads to the House for approval, which is by no means certain on an issue with radar’s history in the Legislature.
The House should approve it. Even with the demeaning distrust of the revenue limit, it is a positive tool for local police to have at hand when almost a third of crashes happen on local roads, and when speeding is so frequently a cause.
The state trusts local police departments to enforce the laws in their community. So why not allow them a common law enforcement instrument that serves public safety?
— The Tribune-Review, Greensburg/ TNS
