Nov 14, 2016 By Luke Campbell 4 min read

As Mt. Lebanon police Lt. Duane Fisher readies himself and other officers for their shift, it is with a conscious effort of making sure a stopwatch is at the ready.

Local police departments have continued to be restricted to archaic methods of timing speeding drivers through two widely-separated white lines painted on roadways to monitor just how fast cars are traveling through their communities.

To further the mission of allowing local law enforcement the use of radar, the Senate voted 47-3 to send the proposal to the House for consideration, with the hope of eliminating the distinction of being the only state that doesn’t allow local police permission to use the technology.

“The technology is there,” Upper St. Clair police Chief Doug Burkholder said about the long-discussed recommendation. “I guess they just like talking about this issue year after year.”

It’s an issue that won’t go away, especially with the more than 33,000 crashes in 2015 directly related to a high rate of speed, which more than doubles the next leading cause of accidents of distracted driving, according to 2015 crash statistics from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

“The fact that 49 states use it and we don’t, it shows that we are behind the curve of using the most modern and effective tool to keep our roads safe,” Fisher said. “With radar you can specifically target vehicles at a much faster rate and don’t have to wait for them to cover a certain amount of distance. You get immediate feedback.”

The importance of immediate feedback to the four municipalities – Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Peters and Bethel Park – all townships bordering Route 19.

“One of the biggest complaints that we get are people in small neighborhoods and developments where you have kids playing in the street or people taking a walk with their dog,” Peters Township police Chief Doug Grimes said.

As speed-related fatalities climbed over 1,600 from 2011 to 2015, and being classified as having the nation’s third highest number of fatalities in 2013 according to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, it’s a problem that Fisher and Grimes relate to the difficult landscape of southwestern Pennsylvania.

“A lot of problems in this area are caused by topography,” Fisher said. “It isn’t simple to find places to run speed. When we do have those areas, drivers recognize the thick white lines and tend to adjust their speed. Drivers need to believe there is a possibility that they can be sighted anywhere.”

“The use of speed-timing devices, not radar, requires you to have a particular site distance,” Grimes said. “With radar, it’s a matter of you pointing the gun at a moving car as you sit stationary. Where that would come in extremely beneficial is in the neighborhoods that are off main roads.”

According to a PennDOT traffic study done in 2015, Allegheny County ranks first in the state in regards to the percentage of miles of local roads and streets maintained at the municipality level.

A potential problem and fallback to those opposed to passing a bill granting radar to local police is the financial benefit, which some believe could be abused.

“People want to argue that it’s all about raising money,” Fisher said. “Our traffic enforcement is solely based on traffic safety and has nothing to do with revenue. Some of the propaganda put forward about the concern of local municipalities as a money maker is full of a lot of holes.”

That excuse, along with others, was discredited by Grimes, a former state trooper who trained and certified municipal police officers during his 28-year tenure.

“Ultimately, what this comes down to is a public safety issue,” Grimes said. “As long as this bill is not passed, it makes it more difficult for us to provide the public safety that our citizens have been asking for. They really hamstring us from being able to maximize enforcement.”

With not many days of legislative session remaining, the likelihood of anything passing remains bleak.

“When they break for the holidays it’s done,” Grimes said. “It has to be reintroduced and basically the process starts all over, again.”