‘Our #1 complaint’: Mt. Juliet police tackle speeding in neighborhoods
MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN) — When it comes to speeding, no area is immune to the problem. In Mt. Juliet, police told News 2 that neighborhood speeding is the number one crime they see.
Dannica Hill said she’s petitioning for speed humps along her street because she pointed out that the 15-miles-per-hour sign is often ignored.
“I think every house on our street has children, I think every house on our street has animals,” Hill said.
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She also said drivers use her street as a pass thru considering it runs parallel with Mt. Juliet Rd.
“My biggest fear is that I’m going to come out one day and find one of my animals which I find almost as equally as important as my child injured. It would be devastating if one child was injured or worse,” Hill said.
“Our number one complaint is speeding in neighborhoods beyond any type of criminal complaint,” said Mt. Juliet Police Capt. Tyler Chandler.
To help curb those complaints, the Mt. Juliet Police Department looks through these online requests made by residents.
“Our police officers made around 620 traffic stops, but out of those traffic stops only 193 citations. So that’s what a 37% rate,” Chandler said.
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Chandler said citations do not change dangerous driving behaviors, so Mt. Juliet PD created a neighborhood traffic unit three years ago.
“It’s a group of three police officers,” Chandler said. “They drive unmarked covert vehicles and when we identify neighborhood streets through our speed study device that show extreme speeds that need our attention desperately, these officers go out to those streets and do traffic enforcement.”
Chandler said there are four neighborhoods that are on the enhanced enforcement list. Clear View Drive is on that list.
“This is a black box that has a radar device in it, and it counts cars, and it lets us know the speed of that vehicle, so we get a report right here to show us how many vehicles drove at a certain speed,” Chandler said.
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He said the data is crucial to help determine which neighborhoods need the extra police presence.
Hill said drivers need to form good habits. “The community is growing, people are coming in. We don’t want people to set bad habits if we can stop that as we are growing as a town, as a city.”
See how communities are cracking down on drivers who treat neighborhoods across Middle Tennessee like race tracks in News 2’s Neighborhood Speeders special report.
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