HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — You may have seen them out on the road clocking your speed, but contrary to what some may think, the radar digital safety displays aren’t on the roads for the purpose of issuing speeding tickets, instead they are there to deter and educate.
“A couple of weeks ago there was a viral social media post regarding the equipment that was recently acquired by the Guam Police Department and we wanted to dispel any rumors about what the radar speed display can and cannot do,” Police Chief Stephen Ignacio said during a press conference held Friday.
One of the misconceptions is that the radar takes pictures of motorists traveling above the speed limit and then issues a ticket to the registered owner’s mailing address.
“First and foremost, that is not true. The radar speed display is purchased by our partners at the Office of Highway Safety. … The radar speed display is just one of those pieces of equipment that help us further our enforcement efforts, our education efforts and serves a deterrence,” the chief said.
GPD has two radar digital safety displays, he said, allowing the department to collect data which aids in enforcing the speed limit.
“It does tell us how many cars were speeding, what the speeds were versus the speed limit in the area where it is posted up,” Chief Ignacio said. “That helps us determine where best we can focus our enforcement efforts and of course our education in reminding the community about speeding.”
Since the beginning of 2023 there have been 18 traffic crashes with 22 fatalities, six of which were directly related to speeding. In 2022, GPD reported five speed-related traffic fatalities, in 2021 there were 12 speed-related traffic fatalities and in 2020, nine traffic fatalities were speed-related.
“Speeding continues to be one of the causes of traffic fatalities on our roadways and so these pieces of equipment are just a furtherance of our efforts to educate the community and … provide a deterrence in the community and remind of the speed limit in the area and the speed they are going,” Ignacio said.
Since their implementation, the radar displays have been deployed on Route 10 and Route 3, each for roughly eight hours.
“Just based on the data, … we determined that a majority of the vehicles in that location were traveling between 45 mph to 55 mph, which is above the speed limit. Basically, we want to gain compliance from the public to follow the Guam speed limits,” Highway Patrol Division Sgt. Alex Blanquisco said.
The radar digital displays will not be used to ticket motorists, unlike the hand-held laser speed guns used by police. GPD noted that the presence of a police officer is needed to witness the act of speeding in order to issue a speeding citation.
GPD confirmed that the presence of the radar has been paying off as officers noticed motorists are slowing their speeds in areas where the radar displays are deployed.
Each radar digital display came at a price of $15,000, paid for through a federal grant from the Department of Public Works Office of Highway Safety.
A demonstration is held Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, outside the Guam Police Department Headquarters in Tiyan, Barrigada, for the department’s new radar digital speed display.
