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Traffic school in Livingston will make the move to an online self-study course due to too many COVID complications.
Police Chief Greg Etheredge said the department tried to meet in-person and on Zoom but there were too many social distancing and technical issues. Etheredge said everything about traffic school for driving citations will stay the same, except an additional $13 fee for the online course.
“They’ll be able to go online and do the traffic course,” Etheredge said. “Then they’ll get a certificate that they’ve completed that course and then they’ll be able to send that in with their safety school fee to the police department to be processed.”
Etheredge said that even though there is an additional fee, the new program will allow flexibility to take the course when someone is off work or during weekends.
“There’s people who have tickets from Kentucky or even Cookeville or different places that get a citation,” Etheredge said. “Coming through town for running a stop sign or speeding or something like that. For people like that, that are not very local, we think it will be an advantage because they’re not having to take off work and coming and sitting through three or four hours with us.”
He said in order to be eligible, drivers cannot have been ticketed by Livingston Police in the last 12 months. Etheredge said if the program is successful, it could become permanent.
“As with any new program, there may be things that we feel like we need to go back and tweak,” Etheredge said. “In terms, to make it more fluid, but like right now you have to come to the police department and sign up for safety school. So, you wont have to do that.”
Etheredge said they will look to roll out the online traffic school in the next 30 days. He said that the department researched and found an online program recognized by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.
