FORT SMITH, Ark. — With thousands driving in Fort Smith daily, the police department dedicated a new traffic unit to enforce safe streets.
Sgt. Kyle Story will oversee the eight seasoned officers in the new unit. He explained that a recent trend of traffic issues contributed to the creation of the unit.
"We've just seen an uptick in the amount of traffic accidents that occur in the city, and the amount of traffic infractions that occur,” Story said.
The supervisor of the new unit said all his officers would be certified to investigate all accidents, from minor to fatal. The unit will use four Harley Davidson motorcycles, Tahoes, Chargers, and light, detection, and ranging (LIDAR) technology as some of the tools to help enforce traffic violations.
Motor officer Jerrod Davidson will join seven other officers, focused solely on traffic violations and accidents. He said the officers will mainly focus on traffic and avoid answering other calls, such as domestic.
"I couldn't tell you how many people I roll up next to that have no clue that an officer just rolled up next to them," he said. "They'll just be sitting there just texting away on their phone. We have pedestrians that get struck because people are just on their phone, they're not paying attention. All it takes is a split second for you taking your eyes off the roadway.”
Although drivers will get more tickets, the officers say the point of the unit is to curb bad habits in order to save more lives.
“For every accident we have, we probably have 10 near misses,” Davidson said. "We have to go out and work these fatality accidents. And those are the worst, worst kind of things. And the serious injury accidents that we’re just really hoping to see a downfall in those because we work way too many of them."
Safety is the unit's number one priority.
"You know, our families drive these roads, just like everybody else's and we want to make sure that everybody gets home safely," Davidson said.
While the unit will patrol all the streets of Fort Smith, Story said they will heavily monitor hot zones, where previous violations were reported.
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