SATURATED RESPONSE
Speeders targeted as police patrols increased at Van Schaick Island
Motorists traveling through Van Schaick Island in the Spindle City this week will notice more police patrols monitoring traffic laws.
Mayor Shawn Morse said based on recent reports regarding traffic violations, there will be a “police saturation period” beginning Monday and through the weekend. Morse said there will now be increased patrols, speed trailers and check points on Van Schaick Island.
“One of the things that I do is that I don’t just follow a book of how you police,” Morse said. “We are a city that listens to our people and we are a city that responds to their concerns. We just want to take a proactive approach and let the residents know that we hear what you’re saying and we’re reacting to that now.”
Morse said he is happy that other programs like his Safe Streets Initiative and walking beat cops have helped to keep the crime rate in the city at an all-time low, but he knows that there can be other issues within the city such as traffic safety.
“Right now we are a really lucky city,” said Morse. “Our crime is down, our statistics that just got sent to us say that we are one of the safest cities in the Capital Region and beyond and it all has to do with our policing strategies that we put together, but we still have issues like every other city.”
Morse said that after listening to the neighborhood watch group on the island about their concerns with people not obeying all traffic laws, he wanted to respond to them.
“Whether you’re in Beverly Hills or Cohoes, you still have kids speeding and going through stop signs, so listening to neighborhood watch, we now have a special detail on Van Schaick Island to address those concerns,” said Morse. “This is just not in Van Schaick Island, we do this all over the place throughout the city, and it just takes time to get to every place within the community.”
Morse believes that the police saturation will have a dual role of working to educate people on traffic safety and traffic laws, along with potentially writing tickets to violators.
“This is a true campaign of stopping people from speeding, so I can imagine that some people will get warnings and that others will get tickets depending on how fast they’re going,” said Morse.