HOLLISTER, Idaho — The Twin Falls County Sheriff's Office has received a grant for four new RADAR units to replace obsolete and non-functioning RADAR in their vehicles.
- Patrol Deputies respond to increasing call volume for all sorts of reasons.
- The new RADAR units, made possible from a grant from the Idaho Transportation Department's Office of Highway Safety.
- The month of April, law enforcement in Idaho will emphasize enforcement of distracted driving laws.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
In the small town of Hollister,
“It can get a little hectic at times we’ve been especially with semis and things.
Tawna Huttanus drives cautiously on us highway 93
“I always get passed because I put my cruise control on and like I’m just going to go with the flow, but I get passed all the time,” Huttanus says.
She says the posted speed limit through town is 45 miles an hour… but the reality is..
“They weren’t going 45, for sure.”
As Twin Falls County has grown, so has the traffic. Thousands of vehicles pass between Hollister and the Nevada border every day.
And to keep up with that traffic -- the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office received a grant to replace 4 radar units in their patrol vehicles.
“With the addition of new radar units to cycle out some of the old ones that are becoming more obsolete or not functioning properly, it’ll definitely help us step up those patrols and take a little bit more action as far as speed violations,” Said Patrol Deputy Brook Prudent.
With the warm weather, law enforcement officers like Prudent know they will see higher speeds become more common.
And while they’re not focusing on catching speeders – safety is the concern.
“It’s safe to say that everybody has sped at some point in their lives,” Prudent says. “And they still do, but it’s just one of those things that plays a huge contributing factor to a lot of different issues and incidences that we do respond to.”
Those incidents – crashes, and near-misses – are why people in Hollister, like Tawna are hoping more speed enforcement…will slow everyone down.
“I think so yes and I know there’s a lot of people that have mentioned things like that before we need a bigger police presence or something out here,” Huttanus says. “Just knowing, with summertime ... It’s really bad.”
