SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A team of eight officers with the Sioux Falls Police Department is part of an organized project to stop speeding drivers near the East 10th Street viaduct.
Two officers capture the speeds on top of the viaduct using a lidar gun.
“It’s different than radar. The beauty of a lidar is that it’s vehicle-specific. It uses infrared light that emits a beam and can measure a difference in distance over a given amount of time, thus giving us a speed. Basically light travels at a constant speed and it can tell how fast an object is going in a given amount of time based on that difference. So it’s a very accurate device,” Sgt. Travis Olsen with the Sioux Falls Police Department said.
Once that speed is recorded, Sergeant Travis Olsen notifies the six officers waiting on the other side.
“We’re really looking for anything that they happen to see when they when they stop a vehicle up here and warrant arrests, license offenses, insurance, seatbelts, narcotics impairment, you name it,” Olsen said.
Olsen said there have been serious crashes in this area before, some including pedestrians. In just one hour, officers stopped 17 drivers. One car hit 55 in the 30-mile-per-hour zone.
“We specifically set up a project like this to be fairly high visible with a lot of police cars and police presence to kind of spread that message about the speeding problem that we’ve got,” Olsen said.
The goal isn’t to write tickets but to make people aware of just how fast they’re going.
“We want to make people aware that speed is a factor in a lot of these accidents and these pedestrian hit and run or accidents as well. Just overall, use caution and know the speed limit posted. Please wear your seatbelt and be aware of your surroundings,” Sioux Falls Police Department officer Joe Hayes said.
Officers said they focus on complaint zones that are sent in by Sioux Falls residents.
