In late September the Upper Darby police targeted a section of Township Line road for specific speeding enforcement. This section of road has been a problem with speeders and unsafe drivers. The enforcement of the speeding laws was needed because of the problem with speeders in this specific area of Pennsylvania.
With the State Police operating the radar guns and the local Upper Darby police issuing the citations, the joint project of local and state police were able to stop 228 motorists for violating the stated speed limit by 15 MPH or more and issues citations that would result in fines and points on their license.
Kudos to the joint effort of the police forces. They have done their jobs, they have stopped the violators, the drivers left that stop more aware of their driving habits. They did a great job stopping those 228 motorists, getting them pulled over and reminded of the laws they may have been breaking. Finding a problem area and protecting the public from a potential threat is exactly what our police forces should be doing. Thank You!
So far a large number of that in violation had their hearings and Judge Cullen has dismissed the charges with issuing these drivers a warning. Now Police Superintendant Michael Chitwood is upset that the judge took the action of issuing the warnings rather than finding guilt and taking fines from each of the drivers caught in the special targetted speed traps.
“To me, it’s irresponsible and unacceptable, especially when you’re dealing with public safety and potential injury that can be caused by speeding,” Chitwood said. “It’s ridiculous to throw 56 tickets out when speeding is a major, major problem. Judge Cullen threw them all out, discharged them all, because there was no state trooper in the courtroom.
My concern is that the police are pushing too hard for punishment over enforcing the law and protecting the public. The rules are in place to protect us and give a guideline to punish the offender, and the judge is hired by voters to best decide how far those punishments need to go. In the case of these 228 tickets, the judge has decided, on 56 of them, that there was no reason to push the punishment further. The main reason given was the State trooper did not show for the hearings, and this was enough of a reason so far. Even if Judge Cullen dismisses the rest of the violators who request hearings, they have still doled out points and fines to those who did not, or could not, request hearings. This also made those who were stopped, slow down, pay attention, and become aware that their actions effect those around them. Still a big win, and sucking the fine money or adding points to their license was not necessary to get their point across for others to slow down and drive safe.
Chitwood’s letter to Williams cited the 30 pending speeding cases scheduled before Cullen on Dec. 6; six more are scheduled for Dec. 13. Fifteen additional tickets, initially scheduled for Nov. 29, will be continued to another date because Cullen will not be hearing cases that day.
What do you think? Should these speeders automatically be hit with all the penalties, or should we trust the judge to do what is in the best interest of the public in these cases?
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