Sunday, July 04, 1999
Chief wants traffic squad brought back
Hamilton cut unit in 1981
BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Nobody wants a speeding ticket. But nobody wants a speeder zooming by, either.
That's why Police Chief Neil Ferdelman believes most residents would welcome the return of the traffic squad after nearly two decades.
“The traffic division never should have been eliminated, and we, as a department and as a community, have suffered for it,” he said in a report to City Manager Stephen Sorrell, requesting that the squad, which was cut in 1981, be resurrected. “It is important to note that since the traffic division was abolished, the very same request to restore it has been made by every one of my predecessors.”
That's because traffic offenses, while not considered major crimes, affect many residents, Chief Ferdelman said.
“We get a lot of complaints about speed, squealing tires and loud boom boxes,” City Councilman Richard Holzberger said. “Everybody, it seems, wants a radar car on their street.”
Mr. Holzberger pointed out that an effective traffic squad would do more than snare speeders. It also could lead to higher numbers of drug seizures in some of those speeding cars, he said.
What's more, when some officers focus exclusively on traffic citations, that would free up patrol officers to handle neighborhood calls, Chief Ferdelman said.
Citing figures from the police division's 1996 annual report, Chief Ferdelman noted that as traffic citations de creased, the number of traffic accidents, injuries and deaths increased.
Such accidents are costly in several ways, he said.
“According to a recent study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, when measured in dollars of medical care, lost wages and property damage, highway crashes exact more than double the financial toll of crime,” Chief Ferdelman's report said, estimating Ohio's cost of crashes at $13 billion a year.
The department has 11 officers, scattered among several shifts, working on traffic enforcement. Chief Ferdelman is asking for three more officers and a lieutenant to supervise the traffic squad.
The new officers would cost $225,252, but Chief Ferdelman said the squad would generate an increased enough revenue from fines so that the unit would be largely self-supporting.
Mr. Sorrell concurred with Chief Ferdelman's recommendation, saying the unit “should be restored to effectively respond to citizens' complaints and concerns.”
Mr. Holzberger cautioned, however: “I don't want to see a quota system developed, where an officer would have to write a certain number of tickets to keep his job.”
That aside, Mr. Holzberger, a former Butler County sheriff, said he supports the idea.
The city law department is now creating legislation that would reinstitute the traffic squad on a one-year trial basis, Chief Ferdelman said.
City council is expected to consider the proposal in mid-July.
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