Floyd County Police Department issues almost twice as many traffic citations in past year
The Floyd County Police Department reported it made nearly twice as many traffic cases than 2005.
By Heath Hooper, Rome News-Tribune staff writer | 04/09/07
If you were violating traffic laws in the county last year, you were more likely to see blue lights shining in your rear view mirror.
According to the Floyd County Police Department’s annual report, almost twice as many traffic citations were issued last year than in past years.
Overall, the department made 11,406 traffic cases in 2006, compared with 6,090 the year before.
Leading the pack was speeding tickets. Officers handed out more speeding tickets in 2006 — 6,560 in all — than the total number of tickets for any violation in 2005.
The numbers are also significantly higher than in 2003 and 2004, when police made 7,572 and 7,267 cases respectively. Exact figures for how much money poured into county coffers from speeding fines were not available, as county ticket fines are not separated from those of the Georgia State Patrol.
Floyd County Police Chief Bill Shiflett said the increased numbers were no fluke.
“I’m a firm believer that strict traffic enforcement has a significant impact on traffic accidents, traffic fatalities and traffic injuries,” Shiflett said, adding that tickets and citations let people be more aware of their mistakes. The stops also lead to arrests for other crimes, he said.
The increased numbers came without any significant change in the number of miles the county patrolled last year. In 2006, the FCPD logged 1,005,879 patrol miles, just 130 miles more than in 2005, and less than in both 2003 and 2004.
The number of crashes dropped slightly, from 2005’s total of 1,779 to 1,700 last year. The number of injuries from those crashes was down again, from 548 in 2005 to 481 in 2006, and the county’s seven fatalities, six fewer than in 2005, also continued a three-year downward trend.
And 2007 looks like its on track for more of the same. Sgt. John Blaylock, the new head of the FCPD’s selective enforcement unit, kicked off a concentrated effort in February to decrease the number of injuries caused by crashes.
The FCPD’s traffic enforcement plan for 2007 calls for increased focus on seatbelt and child restraint use, speeding and DUI enforcement, Blaylock said. More than half of those killed last year were not wearing a restraining device, the report stated.
That effort is making progress. In February alone, a four-person traffic unit wrote 55 tickets, compared to a total of 229 written in all of 2006, Blaylock said.
The annual report from the Rome Police Department is expected this month, officials said.
