(CHARLOTTE COUNTY) The Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Cameron announced that the Traffic Safety Team received four new Falcon HR traffic radar units, and other equipment, as the result of winning two first place awards at the Florida Law Enforcement Challenge ceremony held July 22 in Orlando. The units were obtained at no cost to CCSO for obtaining a number of points that the agency could “spend” from an on-line catalog. Sheriff Cameron said, “The points translated into a total of $31,500 in new equipment for the agency that is funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.”
Sheriff Bill Cameron said, “These radar units were obtained for winning first place in the ‘DUI’ category, and first in the ‘Click it or Ticket’ category for our participation in the ‘Over the Limit, Under Arrest’ campaign.”
According to Sgt. Thomas Scott, head of the CCSO Traffic Safety Team, “Each Falcon HR radar unit is valued at $1,500 and can be operated in a moving or stationary mode. All four District Offices around the county received one of the new radar units.”
Also ordered from the NHTSA points fund was a radar unit valued at $750 going to the School Resource Officer (SRO) unit, and two Stalker DSR2X radar units at $3,200 apiece for the CCSO Motorcycle units. The older radar units will be given to the K9 Unit to be mounted in their vehicles.
Concerning the FLEC competition, each Florida law enforcement agency is placed in a specific category based on agency size; CCSO was in the 150 to 250 law enforcement officer category. Various statistics are submitted that includes crash data, seat belt usage data, media releases, arrests, and citations issued. The goal is to educate the public and save lives; it has been proved that during these campaigns, traffic fatality rates for the state go down during these enforcement periods.