PROSPERITY — The Prosperity Police Department has applied for a grant that, if awarded, will allow the department to possibly purchase one or more safety trailers for the Town of Prosperity, along with tending to other department needs.
“We would like to receive the grant. We haven’t received any specifics. All it is currently is just a grant that we put in for. That’s one of Council’s more common inquiries, traffic safety trailers. They want to get estimates on them, because they are not cheap by any means,” Police Chief David Beddingfield said.
Traffic safety trailers vary in price, mainly depending on what an agency wants the traffic safety trailer to do.
“Given the current situation of the police department and where we’re at equipment-wise, it wouldn’t be the best priorities to just go out and purchase traffic safety trailers at retail when we’ve got other needs that would hold a higher priority,” Beddingfield said. “However, with the grants, it’s just a matter of if we get picked or we’re awarded the grant. If we don’t receive the grant we can always apply again next year. But if they were to come through, then we could look at acquiring a traffic safety trailer or two.”
Traffic safety trailers serve to raise awareness among motorists, essentially being able to make a motorist aware if they are going over the speed limit or not.
“Traffic safety trailers can do several things. One of the things they do is make you aware of your speed limit with flashing lights that you’re exceeding the speed limit. It’s a sense of awareness because with a traffic safety trailer, it can bring awareness to the drivers actions and hopefully the driver will then slow down and not danger the public by exceeding the speed limit,” Beddingfield said.
He added that with traffic safety trailers this is just another way for law enforcement officers to increase awareness on roadways.
Besides monitoring a motorist’s speed, traffic safety trailers can also collect data that can be helpful in handling community complaints, how many cars are traveling down roadways, average speeds and number of cars traveling on roads.
“Anything we can do to raise awareness against poor driving habits is a good thing, specifically if it’s something we do to bring awareness that doesn’t require someone getting a citation,” Beddingfield said.
