5/7/03-Two state lawmakers are drafting legislation to allow local police to use radar to catch speeders.
Pennsylvania is the only state that doesn’t permit some municipal police to use radar. Bills to permit it have died over the years amid concerns that local officers won’t be properly trained and some departments will write a flurry of tickets to boost local coffers.
Sen. Robert Thompson, R-Chester, and Rep. Dennis Leh, R-Berks, are reviving the effort this year by writing up companion bills that would permit radar only by full-time officers on full-time forces and require passage of a local ordinance to use it.
Local governments would keep fines that equal 5 percent of their annual budget. The rest would go to a state fund for highway repairs.
“ It’s pretty amazing that in this technological age, Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that still forces its local police to use stopwatches to enforce traffic speed limits. We have sophisticated radar available and police use stopwatches? That simply doesn’t make sense,” Thompson said in a statement.
Sen. Thompson’s and Rep. Leh’s offices told Land Line the lawmakers were expected to introduce their bills by mid May.