Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – The City of Syracuse is about to start major police crackdown on drivers who text or talk on their cell phones. Syracuse Police just found out the city is one of two in the country selected for a study of high-visibility, zero tolerance enforcement of distracted driving.
It probably won't be hard for police to find. In just a few minutes today we saw driver after driver gabbing away on their phone, while behind the wheel. Captain Shannon Trice, who heads up SPD's traffic bureau, says, "We write about 2-thousand cell phone tickets a year."
He says officers could write a lot more, but they just don't have the resources to concentrate on it, until now. Syracuse police will receive a $300,000 dollar grant and help from the Sheriff's Office and State Police to target distracted driving. "When people see police paying attention to a problem and enforcing the law it makes a difference in their behavior,” Trice said.
The crackdown is going to be modeled after the “Buckle Up NY” campaign, which Trice says has taken seat belt compliance from 70% to 95% now. "The initial plan is to do for the next two years, is to do two one week waves each year where we focus on nothing but distracted driving enforcement,” he said.
The crackdown will include a major public information and education campaign and a pre-survey to see just how many people are breaking distracted driving laws. "Then we'll be doing enforcement, which will include road checks, including saturation patrols, intersection checkpoints where we'll be looking for people talking or texting, we'll be issuing tickets having a zero tolerance policy toward that offense,” said Trice
Trice says he wants Syracuse to have the reputation of taking distracted driving seriously so that people won't even consider doing it. The first targeted enforcement week will probably take place early next year.
