By Bob Johnson, The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Public Safety Director Mike Coppage is tired of hearing Alabama referred to as “a hammer state.”
“That means when you are on the interstate and get to Alabama you can step on the pedal and go as fast as you want to,” Coppage said.
Coppage believes that speed is a major reason that 1,001 people died in traffic accidents on Alabama’s highways last year and that the number of accidents on interstate highways has been steadily rising from 7,808 in 1994 to 12,630 last year.
Coppage and Gov. Bob Riley believe one way to slow drivers down is to get more police officers on the roads writing speeding tickets. But a 1996 law bars small-town cops from ticketing drivers on interstates, and Riley’s bid to repeal the law is running head-on into a powerful state senator who got it passed.
With state troopers undermanned because of budget problems, Riley said it makes sense to shelve the 1996 law that prevents police officers in towns with less than 19,000 population from writing speeding tickets on interstate highways.
“We’re just asking to give these officers the authority to enforce the law,” Coppage told The Associated Press. “Right now if a police officer is going from one part of town to another and gets on the interstate and sees a traffic violation, he can’t write a ticket for it.”
The law was passed by the Legislature with the support of Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, now the president pro tem of the Senate. Barron said he proposed it after being stopped twice by municipal police officers while driving from his northeast Alabama home to Montgomery on legislative business. He said he still believes it’s good policy to leave enforcement of speeding laws to state troopers and would oppose attempts to revoke the 1996 law.
Barron said he did not receive a ticket either time he was stopped, but was told to slow down. He said his main concern was that officers without proper training were being put on the interstates and in some cases were using unmarked cars.
Barron said he believes the way to slow drivers down is to hire more state troopers.
“State troopers are well-trained for this. The governor’s trying to shift the burden for what the state should do off to small towns, whose budgets are already strained,” Barron said.
Barron said he also felt some small towns were running speed traps on the interstates.
“It was a backdoor tax on the people,” he said.
Riley said he’s committed to reducing the number of fatalities on Alabama’s highways. He said the state is in the process of hiring more troopers, but that it takes time to get them trained and on the roads.
“Over 1,000 people a year are being killed on our highways and we can’t allow that to happen,” Riley said. He said he will talk to legislators about repealing the 1996 law and plans to announce in the next few weeks an initiative that he believes will help slow drivers down.
The Alabama Association of Police Chiefs supports allowing police from towns along the interstates to write speeding tickets.
“The law was a knee-jerk reaction by elected officials who meant well,” said Trey Oliver, president of the chief’s association and public safety director in Saraland on Interstate 65 in south Alabama.
“I have no doubt there were some departments that were abusing the authority. But that needs to be addressed by individual departments,” Oliver said. He said getting more police officers on the interstate would save lives.
“Nobody wants to get a speeding ticket, but nobody wants to lose a loved one either,” Oliver said.
Gilbert Norman, the police chief of Riverside in east Alabama, said his officers are expected to work accidents on Interstate 20, but can’t stop speeding cars.
“I will support any and all efforts to get the law changed back,” Norman said. “It’s for the safety of our citizens.”
Norman said his police officers receive the same training as officers in larger departments and are more than capable of patrolling the interstate. He said he hopes Riley can encourage legislators to change the law.
“What it’s going to do is reduce the speed, which in turn will reduce the amount of physical damage from these accidents,” Norman said.