{"id":74507,"date":"2019-09-27T22:49:38","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T22:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-tests-camera-equipped-radar-trailers\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:56:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:56:59","slug":"la-plata-county-tests-camera-equipped-radar-trailers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-tests-camera-equipped-radar-trailers\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County tests camera-equipped radar trailers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A driver approaches a camera-equipped radar speed trailer Thursday on County Road 203, north of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Camera-equipped radar speed trailers in La Plata County could haunt a driver\u2019s record rather than just flash a reminder to \u201cslow down.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith said his office is testing upgraded speed trailers this fall that photograph speeders\u2019 license plates. Drivers will be mailed written warnings and placed on a \u201cnaughty list\u201d of drivers, he said.<\/p>\n

The office plans to test three models of trailers before deciding which model to buy.<\/p>\n

The first trailer arrived five weeks ago and has started collecting data about drivers in Forest Lakes and on County Road 203, he said.<\/p>\n

Data about traffic patterns will help the office deploy deputies to areas that need additional enforcement, he said. The trailers also are intended to help improve safety on county roads, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to modify behavior and get people to think about slowing down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The new trailers will allow the Sheriff\u2019s Office to send warning letters to speeders who are photographed twice, he said.<\/p>\n

Drivers who are caught by a deputy after receiving a warning letter will receive a ticket, he said.<\/p>\n

One of the tested trailers could also help with policing beyond traffic safety.<\/p>\n

The trailer will automatically check to see whether a license plate matches those of stolen cars or are associated with people who have outstanding warrants, he said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A radar speed trailer on County Road 203 photographs the license plates of vehicles that are speeding.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Sheriff\u2019s Office plans to request funding from La Plata County commissioners to purchase one of the new trailers next year, Smith said. The trailers cost $23,000 to $25,000 each, and the office would like to have two, he said.<\/p>\n

While testing the first trailer in Forest Lakes, the Sheriff\u2019s Office found that about 5% of the drivers were going fast enough to be ticketed, Smith said. Neighborhood-level data, similar to that collected in Forest Lakes, will allow the office to respond to complaints about speeding, he said.<\/p>\n

None of the tested models can be used to issue tickets to drivers, Smith said. That process could be expensive and would require additional administrative work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is traffic safety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Durango traffic attorney Marshall Sumrall said drivers likely wouldn\u2019t have a legal recourse against warning letters because no government action is being taken. Drivers are also not entitled to warnings if they are caught speeding, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice can keep whatever internal records they want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

help develop \u2018naughty list,\u2019 send drivers warning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5794,5740,5737,5916,5736,5735,5808,6062,5807],"tags":[155,13,28,1901,445,180,557],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-frontpage-lead","category-headlines","category-la-plata-county-sheriff","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter-lead","category-schools","category-traffic","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-sheriff","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-schools","tag-traffic"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92417,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74507\/revisions\/92417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74507"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}