{"id":802700,"date":"2020-01-01T18:14:23","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T01:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=376719"},"modified":"2020-01-01T18:14:23","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T01:14:23","slug":"summit-county-sheriffs-office-will-get-dedicated-traffic-units","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-county-sheriffs-office-will-get-dedicated-traffic-units\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office will get dedicated traffic units"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Patrol vehicles for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and the Colorado State Patrol at a staging area before a joint traffic enforcement operation. <\/strong>
Courtesy Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office is getting a couple new deputies this year to help address community concerns regarding traffic enforcement around the county.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Board of County Commissioners signed off on two new deputies that will work solely as dedicated traffic enforcement units for the sheriff\u2019s office, a move officials hope will help to make roadways safer and put the minds of anxious citizens at ease.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically our traffic enforcement has been complaint driven, coupled with when our deputies have some available time,\u201d said Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons. \u201cWhen you\u2019re not tied to a call, or tied to the radio and being told where to go, there used to be time when you had available moments to go do proactive community policing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the number of complaints I\u2019m getting from citizens as we become more congested is huge. As we continue to build more, and as we continue to see more people increasingly coming into the county \u2026 our staffing levels just have not kept up with the increased call load. That\u2019s across all jurisdictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

FitzSimons said that with an ever-growing volume of cars on Summit\u2019s roadways, along with a number of notable accidents in recent months \u2014 including a fatal crash on Highway 9 <\/a>near Blue River that killed two in August, and a pair of fatal crashes on Highway 6 in October<\/a> and November<\/a> \u2014 traffic safety has risen to one of his office\u2019s top priorities.<\/p>\n

Other law enforcement agencies around the county felt the same, and have banded together over recent weeks to provide some additional high-visibility enforcement around the area, and to shine a light on the necessity for further enforcement efforts.<\/p>\n

Beginning in November, the Sheriff\u2019s Office, Colorado State Patrol and the police departments in Dillon, Silverthorne, Breckenridge and Blue River all participated in joint traffic enforcement operations in different areas around the county that aren\u2019t as frequently patrolled \u2014 including Highway 6 from Loveland Pass to Dillon, Highway 9 from Hoosier Pass to Breckenridge, Swan Mountain Road and more.<\/p>\n

Over the course of five separate two-hour enforcement periods from Nov. 6 through Dec. 4, officers combined to pull over a total of 187 cars \u2014 issuing 75 citations, five summons, three commercial vehicle inspections and over 100 warnings. FitzSimons said that the majority of citations were for moving violations like speeding, and noted that officers often let drivers off with a warning if the issue wasn\u2019t safety related, such as an equipment problem.<\/p>\n

For law enforcement leaders, the sheer numbers of traffic stops during the brief operations served as proof that more dedicated traffic enforcement was needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it validated the concerns of the community,\u201d said FitzSimons. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019ve started to address those concerns. Going into 2020, this gives us a roadmap for how and where to start focusing our attention. \u2026 We also know that a couple of the areas we focused on were where some of these fatalities happened. So we feel good addressing some of the speeding complaints there, and maybe starting to change some driver habits again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county commissioners agreed that it was time to begin combatting traffic concerns more head on, at least as far as funding will allow. While it\u2019s unclear exactly how much the deputies will end up costing (particularly once expenses like training and equipment are taken into account) officials said providing even a slightly more robust police presence on the roads was worth the price tag.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the big picture of what\u2019s going on in the county in general, more people means more crowding, and more traffic,\u201d said County Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier. \u201cInevitably you\u2019re going to get more traffic issues and more accidents. This sent a clear message that we need to have more people out there on the road. \u2026 When people see that law enforcement vehicle, I think just the presence of it has a very calming impact without even considering the enforcement part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

FitzSimons said that once they\u2019re trained, there would be one additional deputy on duty at a time, and that they would be positioned strategically in areas where they might have the biggest impact, like school zones and in subdivisions of unincorporated Summit County. While one more deputy on patrol a day may not seem like a big change, FitzSimons said the addition could make a big impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese deputies will be out there full time providing traffic safety in our community,\u201d said FitzSimons. \u201cIt\u2019s a great start, and I\u2019m grateful the commissioners have agreed to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrol vehicles for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and the Colorado State Patrol at a staging area before a joint traffic enforcement operation. Courtesy Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office The Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office is getting a couple new deputies this year to help address community concerns regarding traffic enforcement around the county. Last month, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-29 14:20:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}