DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines Police and Iowa State Patrol teamed up to address excessive speeding on I-235 and Highway 5, two spots DMPD says it has received many complaints for speeding from.
On Friday, over 50 vehicles were stopped, and 75 citations were issued between the two highways, the majority of the citations came from I-235.
These stops are a result of a special traffic enforcement project, DMPD says they conduct a handful of these special projects every year.
"When we put these projects together, it might be in response to a specific issue, or there are also joint operations that we do with other agencies sometimes that are part of a grant funded program through the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau," said Sgt. Paul Parizek, Public Information Officer for the Des Moines Police Department.
Parizek says Friday's project stemmed from complaints within the community. Excessive speed and reckless driving are always the top concerns from those complaints.
"When you look at the complaints that we get, and when people are telling us that there are sections of I-235, or Highway 5 that are absolute raceways, we know what we're gonna find when we get out there," Parizek said. "Then you look at the stats at the end of the day, and it just confirms the concerns."
The goal of this specific project was to address speeding in those areas.
While the number of citations given throughout the day are jarring, the biggest eye opener came from a police pursuit as a result of the project.
"The one piece that stood out for a lot of people was that it's not even lunchtime yet, and we have a pursuit with a person who's arrested for OWI and also illegally carrying a firearm," Parizek said. "We're starting to see more and more of that the daylight hours. It's almost like the daytime is midnight with the lights turned on."
Parizek added the number of citations given in the one-day project wasn't surprising to him because DMPD is seeing excessive speeding more every day.