You’ve been warned.
A traffic sweep is coming to the streets of Manteca next month.
In a bid to curtail common problems of speeding and unsafe driving in San Joaquin County communities’ police agencies from Manteca, Ripon, Tracy, Lathrop, and Lodi have joined forces for enforcement/education sweeps employing upwards of 15 motorcycle officers from the various police department.
Tracy motorists this week got a taste of what Manteca drivers next month can expect from the enhanced traffic enforcement effort when 300 tickets for moving violations were issued. To put that in perspective during all of 2017 Manteca officers issued only 1,155 moving violations. If the Tracy effort us successfully duplicated in Manteca next month, the multi-agency effort would be issuing 300 tickets in four days compared to almost three months for Manteca officers to reach that number on their own.
All 15 motor officers were out on Tracy city streets Wednesday from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. after the schools let out for the day. The nine-hour operation saw 223 traffic stops and 195 citations issued to motorists for a variety of vehicle code violations. The traffic and safety sweep is in direct response to residents concerned with unsafe driving.
Manteca motorcycle officers took part in a traffic sweep of Tracy’s surface streets Wednesday from several agencies in a mutual aid effort that also included Ripon, Lodi, Tracy, Lathrop and San Joaquin County with a special emphasis on the city’s elementary schools at dismissal time.
Manteca will host a similar operation next month using officers in a mutual aid capacity writing tickets and warning motorists all over the city and near the elementary schools as parents are dropping them off and then picking them up at the end of the day.
Ripon Officer Paul Staley wrote four citations Wednesday for red light violations, two for not obeying posted signs, three for stop sign violations, seven for cell phones, one seat belt for 22 tickets in total.
Mothers picking up their children on the streets in front of the city’s elementary schools were surprised to see police officers from other communities issuing citations for various violations. Tracy had received specific complaints from residents such as those complaining parents decide to just suddenly stop in the middle of Lowell Street to drop off and pick up their kids even though there are signs posted saying “no stopping.”
Wednesday marked the fourth day of Tracy’s enhanced traffic and pedestrian safety operation. The first three days of the crackdown when seven officers were deployed more than 400 traffic stops and 300 citations issued to motorists.
The operation will be coming to Manteca next month where speed and cross walk violations will get attention among other violations.
Sponsored by the Office of Traffic Safety in Sacramento, the cost of officers’ time is paid by a state grant. Officers working the joint agency due so on a regular day off meaning law enforcement in their respective communities are not impacted.
To contact Glenn Kahl, email gkahl@mantecabulletin.com.
