Police data show safety-sign signs cut speeding; council hears plan for cameras and enhanced reporting

Deputy Chief of Police Bridal Darling presented the city's monthly safety sensitive zone report and two-year data summary, telling council the driver-feedback signs are producing meaningful speed reductions but that enforcement, crash patterns and resource constraints require continued adjustments.

"This is the report that the signs provide for us," Bridal Darling said, explaining staff compressed daily feed data from the sign vendor into summary charts to make trends readable for council. The city’s safety sensitive program began in June 2023 and currently covers four corridors: Fox Run Parkway (roughly North Park to South Park), Irma Drive (from 104th to 120th), Community Center Drive (from SCL Health to the Boondock parking lot entrance), and Melody Drive (Monterey Circle north past Melody and West 100th Place).

Bridal Darling said the sign data shows a consistent 40–50% reduction in the number of vehicles recorded at peak speeds once the driver-feedback signs register speeds. For example, in a sample Fox Run northbound month the vendor data averaged 994 cars per day with 572 cars exceeding the speed limit by at least 1 mph; when counting peak-speed reads the number of vehicles 5 mph or more over the limit was larger but the signs cut that count roughly in half.

The department reported roughly 4,000 traffic citations issued (citywide) over the reporting period and said last year’s seven traffic fatalities were an outlier; three involved motorcycles and none occurred inside the safety sensitive zones. Darling emphasized that the program prioritizes reducing harm and aligning enforcement with crash clusters and times of highest risk rather than maximizing citations.

Council and staff discussed where enforcement has been effective and where administration needs to increase resources. Darling said Ward 3 (Community Center Drive) shows the highest speeds and the most speeding citations; Ward 4 (Melody Drive) has had the least enforcement and requires more attention. He said the sign technology provides averaged and peak reads; the city will add more visible light bars to the signs (described by staff as blue and red flashing lights to mimic squad visibility) to try to reduce peak speeds further.

On automated enforcement, staff reported an RFP for speed enforcement cameras is open; the RFP question-and-answer phase is active, a solicitation is expected to close in mid-to-late July, and staff aims to select a vendor between August and September. Darling said state statute limits civil automated-camera fines to a base $40 civil penalty and allows doubling of fines (to $80) only in school or construction zones or other narrow statutory circumstances. For that reason, permanent automated cameras in safety-sensitive or school zones could reduce — not increase — the fines that would otherwise be higher under the city’s doubled-fine scheme; staff plans a mix of fixed corridor and mobile camera deployments and will bring required ordinances/resolution language to council.

Darling also described planned improvements to reporting: the department will break out enforcement activity by patrol versus traffic unit, present crash counts by injury severity (fatal, serious, minor, none), and report school-zone citations as a cumulative total across the city’s 12 school zones rather than listing each individually. Council members asked for specific follow-up: where signs might be moved, whether additional signs should be sited on Community Center Drive closer to pedestrian activity, and how mobile enforcement will be rotated among wards based on resident complaints and crash data.

No formal votes were taken. Staff said it will return with vendor-selection materials and ordinance language tied to the automated enforcement program and will install enhanced light bars on existing driver-feedback signs to improve visibility in the near term.