07-15-2008, 03:00 AM
Police getting power to make traffic stops anywhere in Broward
By Brittany Wallman | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
9:10 PM EDT, July 14, 2008
Forget the sigh of relief when you see that the officer behind you is outside his jurisdiction. If you drive in Broward County, those jurisdictional lines soon will disappear.
Under a new policing-without-boundaries plan set to launch in two weeks, city officers could make traffic stops in any other city in Broward.
Sheriff Al Lamberti has quietly signed agreements with several cities in Broward that have their own police departments and hopes to get all the Broward cities signed on. Under the sheriff's plan, city officers in Broward would be like county deputies, able to enforce traffic laws countywide, even when they're off duty and driving to the grocery store.
Alreadysigned on are Sunrise, Coral Springs, Margate and Coconut Creek, Sheriff's Office spokesman Jim Leljedal said.
Law enforcement mutual aid agreement for traffic enforcement
Red-light runners The 14 cities or areas patrolled by the Sheriff's Office also are in on the deal and drivers there will be subject to pullover by officers from other cities.
Areas served by the Sheriff's Office include Cooper City, Dania Beach, Deerfield Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, unincorporated Broward, the airport and seaport, Lauderdale Lakes, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Parkland, Pembroke Park, West Park, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Weston and Southwest Ranches.
Coral Springs Police Chief Duncan Foster said his city would use the new powers to clamp down on aggressive drivers, not just run-of-the-mill speeders.
"Many times we'll have officers outside their jurisdiction and people will just be flagrantly driving by," Foster said of dangerous drivers. "There was little we could do."
City commissioners in Fort Lauderdale are considering the deal and will discuss it publicly at a meeting today. They want to try it for six months and, like Coral Springs and other cities, would limit the enforcement to drunken driving, reckless driving and aggressive careless driving.
The new, heightened law enforcement is scheduled to begin Aug. 1.
"We have people literally thumbing their noses at other police officers because they figure there's nothing they can do about their driving," Leljedal said. Under the sheriff's proposal, he said, "that marked police car will be a deterrent wherever it is," Leljedal said.
Currently, if a Coral Springs police officer watched a driver blow through a red light in Miramar, for example, the driver would be free and clear. Unless the two cities had a legal agreement in place, their officers don't have authority to police elsewhere, city and police officials said.
The proposal could render Fort Lauderdale's streets an intense traffic-policing zone, because officers from all around the county travel there to the county jail and courthouse.
The proposal would have financial benefits for the cities. The city where the traffic stop is made would get the largest chunk of any financial fine, while the arresting officer's agency would get a small cut.
But that's not the point, Leljedal said.
"We're stressing that revenue-producing is not the purpose here."
The proposal would affect only cities in Broward County.
By Brittany Wallman | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
9:10 PM EDT, July 14, 2008
Forget the sigh of relief when you see that the officer behind you is outside his jurisdiction. If you drive in Broward County, those jurisdictional lines soon will disappear.
Under a new policing-without-boundaries plan set to launch in two weeks, city officers could make traffic stops in any other city in Broward.
Sheriff Al Lamberti has quietly signed agreements with several cities in Broward that have their own police departments and hopes to get all the Broward cities signed on. Under the sheriff's plan, city officers in Broward would be like county deputies, able to enforce traffic laws countywide, even when they're off duty and driving to the grocery store.
Alreadysigned on are Sunrise, Coral Springs, Margate and Coconut Creek, Sheriff's Office spokesman Jim Leljedal said.
Law enforcement mutual aid agreement for traffic enforcement
Red-light runners The 14 cities or areas patrolled by the Sheriff's Office also are in on the deal and drivers there will be subject to pullover by officers from other cities.
Areas served by the Sheriff's Office include Cooper City, Dania Beach, Deerfield Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, unincorporated Broward, the airport and seaport, Lauderdale Lakes, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Parkland, Pembroke Park, West Park, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Weston and Southwest Ranches.
Coral Springs Police Chief Duncan Foster said his city would use the new powers to clamp down on aggressive drivers, not just run-of-the-mill speeders.
"Many times we'll have officers outside their jurisdiction and people will just be flagrantly driving by," Foster said of dangerous drivers. "There was little we could do."
City commissioners in Fort Lauderdale are considering the deal and will discuss it publicly at a meeting today. They want to try it for six months and, like Coral Springs and other cities, would limit the enforcement to drunken driving, reckless driving and aggressive careless driving.
The new, heightened law enforcement is scheduled to begin Aug. 1.
"We have people literally thumbing their noses at other police officers because they figure there's nothing they can do about their driving," Leljedal said. Under the sheriff's proposal, he said, "that marked police car will be a deterrent wherever it is," Leljedal said.
Currently, if a Coral Springs police officer watched a driver blow through a red light in Miramar, for example, the driver would be free and clear. Unless the two cities had a legal agreement in place, their officers don't have authority to police elsewhere, city and police officials said.
The proposal could render Fort Lauderdale's streets an intense traffic-policing zone, because officers from all around the county travel there to the county jail and courthouse.
The proposal would have financial benefits for the cities. The city where the traffic stop is made would get the largest chunk of any financial fine, while the arresting officer's agency would get a small cut.
But that's not the point, Leljedal said.
"We're stressing that revenue-producing is not the purpose here."
The proposal would affect only cities in Broward County.