LAPD handing out fewer speeding tickets because of survey backlog

PANORAMA CITY, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Hampered by a city backlog, Los Angeles police are handing out fewer speeding tickets these days, even as the number of fatal collisions on city streets has increased.

Laser speed guns can only be used on city streets where transportation officials have conducted surveys to help determine safe speed limits.

But those surveys expire after about 10 years. The Los Angeles Police Department says about 75 percent of the 680 surveys they need have reached that point without being renewed.

As a result the number of citations has dropped from about 99,000 in 2010 to only 16,000 last year.

During the same period, the number of collisions has increased by 14 percent - and fatal collisions are up by 20 percent.

"Our hands are tied," said Officer Troy Williams with the LAPD's Valley Traffic Division. "Our number-one chief complaint from the community is people speeding on their streets or neighborhoods"

The city Department of Transportation said the survey backlog was created by budget cuts in recent years.

But the department is now hiring new staff and looking to start catching up next year.