News from all over - Smyrna
On any given day, Sgt. Andy Miller may be the most popular cop running radar around Smyrna. The problem is, he's not real — at least, the one many people see isn't real.
Earlier this month, Smyrna commissioned a life-size, corrugated plastic cutout of Sgt. Andy Miller, posing with his radar gun, a menacing scowl on his face. They post the cutout in high-traffic areas, hoping that it will deter speeders.
"It's meant to get people to think about it and slow down. It's actually worked," said Miller, the head of Smyrna's traffic enforcement division. The speed limit on pedestrian-heavy Front Street is 15 miles per hour, but drivers regularly drive between 25 and 60, Miller said. "We come over here on a regular basis and run radar, but we can't be everywhere all the time," Miller said. "With this, we can be."
The cutout was actually the brainchild of Jim Gammon, the owner of a sign company on Front Street. Gammon approached the city to suggest it and donated the sign. It's working so well that the city is having another cutout made this week.
Nearby Gallatin police started stationing unmanned police cars alongside high-traffic streets in 2004, a tactic several local cities use. The cars, mostly spares that weren't part of the regular patrol fleet, did the trick to slow down speeders, police Lt. Kate Novitsky said. The problem was they just weren't realistic enough.
So the department started manning their dummy cars with dummy officers, mannequins dolled up to look like cops and propped up in the squad cars drivers' seats. "They have been very effective," Novitsky said. "It's a cost-effective way to slow people down. It doesn't require any manpower, other than someone to drive the car out there and park it."
Source
Earlier this month, Smyrna commissioned a life-size, corrugated plastic cutout of Sgt. Andy Miller, posing with his radar gun, a menacing scowl on his face. They post the cutout in high-traffic areas, hoping that it will deter speeders.
"It's meant to get people to think about it and slow down. It's actually worked," said Miller, the head of Smyrna's traffic enforcement division. The speed limit on pedestrian-heavy Front Street is 15 miles per hour, but drivers regularly drive between 25 and 60, Miller said. "We come over here on a regular basis and run radar, but we can't be everywhere all the time," Miller said. "With this, we can be."
The cutout was actually the brainchild of Jim Gammon, the owner of a sign company on Front Street. Gammon approached the city to suggest it and donated the sign. It's working so well that the city is having another cutout made this week.
Nearby Gallatin police started stationing unmanned police cars alongside high-traffic streets in 2004, a tactic several local cities use. The cars, mostly spares that weren't part of the regular patrol fleet, did the trick to slow down speeders, police Lt. Kate Novitsky said. The problem was they just weren't realistic enough.
So the department started manning their dummy cars with dummy officers, mannequins dolled up to look like cops and propped up in the squad cars drivers' seats. "They have been very effective," Novitsky said. "It's a cost-effective way to slow people down. It doesn't require any manpower, other than someone to drive the car out there and park it."
Source
