Florida College Cops Say Increased Traffic Stops Are 'Educational'

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A Florida police department has ramped up traffic enforcement at a few intersections on a college campus. The increase coincided with complaints sent in by a local resident, but the initiative hasn’t led to a matching uptick in citations. The campus’ head resource officer stated the stops are meant to be educational. Though, I wouldn’t say that the best place to learn about driving safety is in the middle of getting pulled over.

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The Lakeland Police Department have been making more stops along Frank Lloyd Wright Way at Florida Southern College, located in the city between Orlando and Tampa. The Southern, the college’s newspaper, reported that was the result of several complaints submitted by a local resident. However, the resident has passed away since the submissions, and the officers on campus aren’t writing more tickets. The latter piece of information can lead people to make two assumptions, either people are driving safely and being stopped regardless or they’re letting drivers off with warnings?

Sgt. Sean Finney, the department’s lead officer on campus, told the Southern:

“Traffic starts with three things: first the engineering, which is how the roadways are designed, there are some flaws to that intersection. But most of the traffic stops are educational. How do you change people’s behaviors? Educating and enforcing. Stops aren’t for you as the motoring student, it’s actually for the pedestrian student.”

Along with the added stops, the department aims to install more speed-detection devices. The newspaper noted that Finney has “an extensive background in making DUI arrests.” The sergeant does make a fair point about how roadway engineering impacts driving safety. Though, this educational push seems counterintuitive and extreme considering how other police departments have been trying to reduce traffic stops because of how dangerous they can be for drivers.