Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown attributes the decline in speeding tickets to deputies' multiple law enforcement duties, including responding to calls in other parts of the county.
Dallas County Sheriff says other law enforcement duties have prevented deputies from writing more tickets and records show the county has passed on grant funding that could pay for additional speed patrols. Throughout our Driven to Death series of reports on speeding drivers, viewers have wondered what's happened to speed enforcement on busy Dallas freeways. NBC 5 used a LiDAR gun and a retired law enforcement officer, to clock drivers on Stemmons Freeway.
In our speed check, drivers often hit 90 mph, while some even topped the triple digits. One motorcycle rider near Interstate 35E and Marsalis was clocked at 142. With speeds that high in a county with a population of more than 2.6 million people, it's easy to think that Dallas County Sheriff's Department deputies could write more tickets than ever. However, Dallas County ticket data uncovered by NBC 5 shows a dramatic drop in the number of tickets issued by deputies tasked with patrolling some of Dallas County's busiest highways. In 2019, the records showed the Dallas County Sheriff's Department issued over 5,600 speeding tickets and 200 warnings. In 2023, the deputies issued only about 1,900 tickets, and warnings were down to 150. NBC 5 asked Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown what she'd tell drivers who wonder about the level of enforcement after seeing other drivers flouting the speed limit. Brown said that the number of tickets issued declined because deputies made fewer stops during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the numbers have not come back up, and Brown said that's because deputies assigned to patrol the county's freeways also have to respond to calls in parts of the county where they provide police services. That duty, the sheriff said, leaves less time for deputies to enforce speeds on the highways
SPEEDING LAW ENFORCEMENT DALLAS COUNTY SHERIFF TRAFFIC SAFETY
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