By BRIAN BURNES
The Kansas City Star
License and registration, please?
Nah. Just a photograph of the south end of your car heading north. And a ticket in the mail. That is what speeders can expect in Sugar Creek this fall.
Aldermen in the Jackson County community last week unanimously approved installing a Multiple Vehicle Speed Tracking device, or “speeder camera.”
When the camera arrives in about six weeks, Sugar Creek apparently will become the first area municipality to use the technology.
“This is the first. It’s going to be a groundbreaker,” said Herb Soule, Sugar Creek’s police chief. “I am going to take the heat.”
Soule and city leaders advocated the cameras to answer residents’ concerns about speeders.
Sugar Creek is a small community (approximately 4,000 residents) with a correspondingly small police department (17 officers, including Soule) that sits amid three larger communities — Kansas City, Independence and Liberty — and has a four-lane highway, Missouri 291, on its eastern edge.
“Larger departments will send a guy out on a motorcycle (to catch speeders), but I don’t have that luxury,” Soule said. “Maybe only three cars out of 300 will present a problem. Then it becomes cost-prohibitive, and that frustrates citizens.
“I understand their concerns. I don’t want to be fanatical about it, but speed limits are not suggestions.”
The Multiple Vehicle Speed Tracking unit, marketed by B&W Sensors LLC of Sunset Hills, Mo., employs a camera that calculates a vehicle’s speed. Soule said that when the device is triggered, a photograph is taken of the rear of the speeding vehicle, with a close-up of the license plate.
The violation will be considered a nonmoving violation because an officer did not witness it. Fines will be based on a sliding scale, depending on speed and other factors. Sugar Creek plans to use the portable camera in various problem areas.
“I think it’s a great safety measure to take, especially in areas where we know we have speeding problems,” Mayor Stan Salva said. “I understand that there are some people upset, but I don’t fully understand why.”
Some drivers may complain about entrapment, said Larry Joiner, a former Kansas City police chief who works as a representative of B&W Sensors.
“Drivers will see signs placed 300 feet in front of the camera,” Joiner said. “But if drivers still speed after seeing them, what can you do?”
Some cars that trigger the camera may not be driven by their owners, Soule said. But tickets mailed by Sugar Creek will include affidavit forms. A person who was not driving his car when it triggered the speeding ticket can use the form to supply information about the person who was, he said.
Then there is the leeway of a few miles per hour that many drivers assume is granted them. Soule said he was prepared to program into the device the slack that his officers usually allow.
“I don’t want to advertise what that is,” Soule said. “But we do have a generous tolerance.”
Soule said that before the device arrives, Sugar Creek officers will create a “baseline” of data, detailing how many cars exceed the speed limit at particular locations.
“Then we will come back with the camera and see what effect it has.”
B&W Sensors already has placed similar cameras in the St. Louis suburbs of St. Ann and Charlack, a company spokesman said.
Charlack officials said earlier this month that the number of speeders on Interstate 170 had dropped 80 percent since the equipment was installed.
Soule said the device is provided free in exchange for a percentage of the fines it generates.
Bob Buckley, Sugar Creek’s city attorney, told aldermen that courts appear to be upholding the technology used by both the “speeder” and “red-light” cameras. An opinion recently issued in federal appellate court in Illinois validated red-light cameras, Buckley said. A separate opinion issued in St. Louis federal court threw out constitutional challenges of red-light cameras in Arnold, Mo., south of St. Louis.
Joiner said some Kansas City-area police chiefs are considering using the technology in their own communities. Soule, a member of the Metropolitan Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association, has discussed the device with his colleagues.
“At least a couple of them are thinking about using it,” Soule said. “Some of them are waiting to see what kind of heat I get.”
Soule, a member of the Sugar Creek police force for 44 years, already is taking it.
“I had a meeting yesterday with a lady from a local company, a friend of mine,” Soule said. “She said, ‘Well, OK, Big Brother.’
“I just said, ‘Sister, drive the speed limit.’ ”
To reach Brian Burnes, call 816-234-4120 or send e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/30/2188729/speeder-camera-will-be-watching.html#ixzz0yCepg33G
