Wash. Residents Use Radar Guns To Catch Speeders

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

Now an item from the annals of law enforcement: Neighborhood Speed Watch.

(Soundbite of music)

SIEGEL: Dateline Newcastle, Washington, population 9,720. Some Newcastle residents are alarmed by drivers who speed through town. But Chief Melinda Irvine of the Newcastle Police Department doesn't want to divert her force of seven officers to traffic duty. So the NPD has lent a radar gun to concerned citizens who are eager to do the job themselves, citizens like Cheryl Coupens who joins us from her home. Hi.

Ms. CHERYL COUPENS: Hi.

SIEGEL: Why have you taken up a radar again?

Ms. COUPENS: Well, I was asked by the city of Newcastle to come down and check it out and try it out for a few days. So I did that.

SIEGEL: So, what have you done? And what have you found?

Ms. COUPENS: Well, what we did was we brought the gun into the neighborhood. And we stood out in front so cars could see us, and we just pointed at cars that were coming towards us. And it measures their speed. And then if they're, like, in a 25-mile-per-hour speed zone, if they were going, say, 28 or 29, started getting over 30, then we would write their license plate down and the speed they were going. And we clicked at about 20, 25 license plates that were a little bit fast, not bad. Our neighborhood's pretty good. There's just a handful in it. It would be pretty hard to catch them.

SIEGEL: Now, we're hearing a fair number of children back there. I guess it's the children in the street that would have you concerned about this to begin with.

Ms. COUPENS: Yeah, you know, you're just driving along. And if you're going 25, the speed limit, it's easy to slam your breaks on and stop pretty good if some child is coming out on their skateboard or bicycle.

SIEGEL: Now, are you going out to the street with a whole high-tech apparatus with a camera that automatically takes a picture of the license plate and...

Ms. COUPENS: You know, you have to have a partner. So one of us is pointing the gun at the car, and the other one is reading the car's license plate as it comes by. So it's just a good - a friendly reminder to have people slow down. They don't get a ticket. They just get a letter from the city saying, hey, we caught you speeding a little bit, so how about slowing down. It's just a little friendly reminder.

SIEGEL: Yeah, I bet it is now. Now, if they're doing - if they're speeding, are you finding that most people are going five miles over the limit, or 10 miles over the limit, or more than that?

Ms. COUPENS: I'd say - I would say about seven.

SIEGEL: And have any kids on the block asked you to time a fastball while you have the radar gun and...

Ms. COUPENS: Oh, yeah.

SIEGEL: They have, really? Yeah.

Ms. COUPENS: They're having fun with it, too. Yeah.

SIEGEL: They're having fun with the radar gun.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. COUPENS: They wanted to see how fast they could run.

SIEGEL: OK. Oh, you time them as they're running. I see.

Ms. COUPENS: Oh, yeah.

SIEGEL: Yeah, yeah.

Ms. COUPENS: While waiting for cars to come by.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIEGEL: Well, how many...

Ms. COUPENS: Well, you know, let's see how it goes. This is the first week of it, and we're getting all kinds of positive responses and negative responses. Yeah.

SIEGEL: Nobody's put a dead rat on your doorstep or something like that.

Ms. COUPENS: Not yet.

SIEGEL: No, not yet. OK. Good.

Ms. COUPENS: Only my cat.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIEGEL: OK. Well, Cheryl Coupens, thank you very much for talking with us.

Ms. COUPENS: Yeah. Thank you.

SIEGEL: You bet you.

Ms. COUPENS: Bye-bye.

SIEGEL: Cheryl Coupens of Newcastle, Washington, one of the volunteers who's taken up the radar gun on behalf of the Newcastle Police Department in Neighborhood Speed Watch.

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