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Despite some challenges facing the Gladstone Public Safety Department on the law enforcement front, success was recorded in traffic enforcement.

According to a report to analyze the police department’s operations presented to the City Council by Public Safety Director Mike Hasty, the department noted an upward trend in the number of vehicular accidents in Gladstone in 2004.

After this realization, two officers were reassigned from patrol to the traffic unit that year.

Since the reassignment of the officers and an aggressive crackdown on traffic law enforcement, successes can be measured by the department.

According to Hasty, there was a reduction of traffic accidents in 2009 from 2008 of more than 12 percent. Since 2004, the number of accidents has been reduced by 35 percent, and traffic summons issued during the same time frame increased more than 77 percent.

The report indicated that in 2004 there were 942 accidents. By 2009, the number had decreased to 612. Since 2004, citations increased from 5,617 to 9,981 in 2009.

"Essentially, when the tickets are up, the accidents go down," Hasty said.

Hasty said the number of citations for license violations and insurance violations has increased. Since 2005 there has been a 91 percent increase in these types of violations, which have been assumed to be tied to the economy.

The increased attention to traffic enforcement has also increased public education and heightened awareness while placing an increased emphasis on accident studies and recommendations for road engineering.

"We believe we’ve had some proven success in our focus on traffic enforcement over the past few years," Hasty said. "We believe we’ve made Gladstone streets safer and we intend to keep them safer."

— Meagan O’Donnell

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