Pennsylvania is the Only State That Prohibits Local Police From Using Radar

That’s right. While Pennsylvania’s state police can use radar to combat speeding violations, local officers are forced to use to other means. VASCAR is then the main tool of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and municipal police departments across the state, and involves drawing two lines on the pavement and timing how long it takes a vehicle to pass between them.

Enforcing speed laws using VASCAR has its limits: it must be done on a straight road, can’t be performed in the snowy conditions and requires an officer to be sitting in plain view.

The result is that our streets are much less safe than the could be.

Email or call your state legislator to ask them to co-sponsor a bill to allow local law enforcement to use radar

Two proposed bills – one in the state house and one in the state senate – aim to change this by giving local police officers in PA the same speed enforcement tools as their peers across the country. But in order for it to pass, we need your voice.

Find your legislator here, then copy and paste the email message below and ask for them to co-sponsor House Bill 71 or Senate Bill 535. Thank you for taking action.

Current House co-sponsors: READSHAW, FREEMAN, BARRAR, SAMUELSON, SCHLOSSBERG, COHEN, BOBACK, D. MILLER, CAUSER, MULLERY, DEASY, STURLA, DeLUCA, MURT, SCHWEYER, CARROLL, CONKLIN AND HICKERNELL

Current Senate co-sponsors: VULAKOVICH, ALLOWAY, AUMENT, BAKER, BLAKE, BREWSTER, BROWNE, COSTA, EICHELBERGER, FONTANA, HAYWOOD, MENSCH, PILEGGI, SCAVELLO, SCHWANK, SMITH, SMUCKER, STEFANO, TEPLITZ, WHITE AND YUDICHAK

Dear ______________

I am writing to you today in support of upcoming bills, HB 71 in the House and SB 535 in the Senate. The bill proposes a simple change that will allow local law enforcement, and not just state police, to use radar and laser to enforce speeding. Currently, they are limited to the out-dated, inaccurate, and often impossible-to-use VASCAR method.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration ranks Pennsylvania as No. 3 in the nation in total deaths linked to speeding (550), and No. 3 in the percentage of traffic deaths related to speeding (45.53 percent). No other state appears in the top five of both lists.

This does not come as a surprise, as Pennsylvania is the only state that does not allow local law enforcement to use modern tools, like RADAR and LIDAR. Many of these fatalities are on local streets, not patrolled by state troopers, and are often populated by some of our most vulnerable citizens like pedestrians, children and the elderly.

Most drivers correctly recognize that they will never get a speeding ticket on local streets, so there is a sense that they are free to speed. A lack of speed enforcement mixed in high pedestrian areas is a deadly combination, resulting in an increase in the pedestrian fatality rate – the only user group of our streets whose fatality rates have actually risen over the past couple of decades.

Traffic deaths are the leading cause of harm in Pennsylvania, and speeding is one of the biggest factors in a crash. Please allow our local law enforcement to use this necessary tool to stop these senseless deaths that destroy lives and families.

I am asking you today to please cosponsor this bill. Your constituents depend on it.

Sincerely,

 

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