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Eye on Sedona with Police Chief Ray Cota

Eye on Sedona with Sedona Police Chief Ray Cota was submitted by the City of Sedona

Sedona AZ (October 10, 2012)This City of Sedona Arizona column, Eye on Sedona, is written by Ray Cota, Sedona Chief of Police:

As the many improvements along State Route 89A are coming to a completion, I thought this would be an opportune time to highlight some of the activities that the police department is involved in to ensure the safety of those who drive, ride, bike and walk along our roadways. Traffic safety is an ever-present concern raised by those who visit, travel through, work and or reside in the City of Sedona. The perceptions and realities regarding the relative safety of our streets and roadways are clearly some of the most significant challenges and opportunities the police department faces on a daily basis.

One of the most significant endeavors in our traffic safety activities that is nearing completion will be the implementation of a police department Traffic Safety and Enforcement Strategy. While the department has long had a policy addressing traffic enforcement, it was very general in nature and does not encompass the many factors involved in creating a consistent and systematic approach to reducing traffic collisions as well as addressing community concerns regarding traffic enforcement. The objectives of our new strategy will involve:

• Training and educating our personnel on traffic safety roles and responsibilities through on-going skill development and instruction, performance evaluation, and ensuring a proper balance of enforcement, prevention and intervention activities.

• Improving Quality of Life in our city and addressing community traffic safety issues through proactive information sharing, coordinated traffic safety initiatives with other city departments and local agencies, and the continued respectful, courteous and compassionate interaction with the public.

• Using state of the art management and training techniques, technology, research and evaluation to enhance the quality of our traffic safety services.

• Reducing traffic collision rates through developing community partnerships, proactive and visible approaches to enforcement to create voluntary compliance with traffic laws and readily identifying unsafe driving habits for targeted enforcement and community education.

The focus that the police department will have in regards to traffic safety is one that encompasses both qualitative and quantitative measures. I have spoken to department staff on many occasions that our success in traffic safety is not measured by the number of tickets that officers write. Our success will be measured by the feedback and input we receive from the community, education and awareness efforts that we implement and/or develop in partnership with the community, traffic collision statistics and trends, and the driving behaviors we observe on a daily basis.

During this past year the police department obtained state grant funds and city funding to purchase two portable electronic message and radar speed display boards. We have placed these periodically in various areas of the city to make drivers aware of traffic conditions, driving speeds and other safety concerns in an effort to gain awareness and compliance to traffic laws. We have also partnered with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, and Cottonwood Police Department to conduct dedicated DUI enforcement patrols to ensure our roadways are kept safe. Advanced training has been done on traffic collision investigations so that we have a more in-depth understanding of the factors that contributed to serious injury and fatal collisions. This month we are scheduled to begin the deployment of part-time personnel to assist with managing traffic flows during peak periods in Uptown and will be meeting with various stakeholders to develop methods to enhance roadway bicycle safety.

I am sure there are people in the community that believe the department focuses only on enforcement. I can tell that our officers wrote 25% less traffic citations in 2011 than were written in 2010 and are currently writing 6% less traffic citations in 2012 than were written in 2011. When you add in the written warnings and repair order citations issued by our officers these non-fine citations account for 42% of the total citations issued. These numbers are significant because traffic collisions increased 4.5% in 2011 as compared to the number of collisions occurring in 2010 and are currently on a pace to increase nearly 4% in 2012 as compared to 2011. Additionally, DUI arrests declined by 20% in 2011 as compared to 2010 but are on a pace to increase by 20% in 2012 as compared to 2011.

What does all this really mean? It means that there is not any one single factor that determines how traffic safety is achieved in our community. Our approach to traffic safety must be multi-faceted, specific to the uniqueness of our community and effective. The implementation of our Traffic Safety and Enforcement Strategy is just one effort in many that our department will be taking to make the roadways of Sedona as safe as possible for everyone.

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