Baxter Alderman Voices Concerns About School Traffic Safety Agreement

Baxter Alderman and Tennessee Highway Patrolman Willie Allison told Baxter Aldermen Thursday night he believed they made a mistake in signing a new agreement to implement LIDAR cameras to patrol school zone areas.

Allison said it will take a photo of your vehicle and license plate, and the citation will be mailed to you and to the police department. He said he believes it is difficult to cite someone’s speed using just camera software.

“There are things that you have to do to even cite someone for speeding,” Allison said. “One, you see a car coming you have to estimate the speed yourself and then you have to verify it by radar, and then you got to stop the person, see the individual that is driving, and then cite that person.”

Allison said it made more sense to have Baxter Police Officers do it themselves. Police Chief Danny Holmes had originally advocated for the software citing difficulty in keeping both school zones patrolled.

Allison also voiced concern about the fact that the citation is on the vehicle and not the driver who was actually speeding. Holmes said that the contract had already been signed and would cost the city to break the contract.

“I wish y’all would have tabled this so we could talk about it before you voted on this,” Allison said. “There are a lot of things that we should have discussed.”