Traffic citations have gone down in Cape Girardeau but up in Jackson in recent years

The number of traffic tickets being issued in Cape Girardeau is declining, while the tickets being written in Jackson have been going in the opposite direction over the last several years. Both cities write roughly the same number of tickets on a per-capita basis, however.

Cape Girardeau has decreased its total number of citations from 7,001 in 2012 to 4,055 in 2015, a 42 percent decrease. Cape Girardeau had one year with an increase over that time span.

In neighboring Jackson, the number of tickets the police department there has written has increased steadily, particularly in the last two years. In 2011, Jackson issued 1,075, compared to 1,491 in 2014, a 38 percent increase over that period. Jackson had one year with a decrease over that time period.

Sources: Missouri State Highway Patrol; local law-enforcement agencies

Cape breakdown

In Cape Girardeau, the largest percentage of tickets written in 2015 was for speeding, 1,082; and improper license, 1001.

Both of those figures were up from 2014; 821 for speeding and 773 for improper license.

The department’s citations rose steadily from 2008, starting at 6,608, through 2012, when it peaked at 7,001.

The increased number of tickets written during that time coincided with an increase in traffic collisions: 1,756 in 2008 to 2,070 in 2012.

Since 2012, crashes have increased: 2,096 in 2013; 2058 in 2014; and 2,177 in 2015.

“A lot of people out there think we have quotas,” said Sgt. Adam Glueck of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. “We do not have quotas in Cape Girardeau. Part of police work is enforcing traffic regulations.”

Cape Girardeau’s high accident areas in 2015 were Mount Auburn Road between William Street and Gordonville Road with 42; Kingshighway between Themis and Independence streets with 31; and Kings-

highway between Cape Rock Drive and Kiwanis Drive with 30.

Areas where serious injuries have happened are Kingshighway between William and Merriwether streets, 6, and William Street from Saint Francis Drive to Mount Auburn Road, 6.

The constant among all of those streets is they are high-traffic areas, Glueck said.

Glueck added pulling people over for traffic enforcement can lead to much bigger arrests when information is found out about the driver.

“It might be getting a killer off the streets,” Glueck said. “How do you think we catch people?”

Jackson breakdown

Sgt. Rob Rose of the Jackson Police Department fills out an incident report at the police station Tuesday in Jackson.GLENN LANDBERG

Jackson has steadily increased the total number of traffic tickets it has issued, with the exception of 2012: 1,075 in 2011, 897 in 2012, 1,370 in 2013 and 1,491 in 2014.

Speeding accounts for a significant portion of those tickets, but the number of speeding tickets issued has fluctuated: 560 in 2010; 307 in 2011; 302 in 2012; 459 in 2013; and 440 in 2014.

Failure to stop at a stop sign tickets have increased dramatically from 37 in 2010 to 127 in 2014. Improper registration accounts for the largest portion of the department’s nonhazardous violations, from 186 in 2010 to 358 in 2014.

“Obviously it’s a safety thing,” said Rodney Barnes, Jackson public information officer. “Most accidents are caused by speed and attention and improper driving.”

Jackson has seen fewer accidents from 2011: 544 in 2011; 532 in 2012; and 519 in both 2013 and 2014. In 2014, the top reasons cited for accidents were following too close, 100, failing to yield, 88, and driving too fast for the conditions, 57.

Jackson’s top 10 accident locations in 2014 were all on East Jackson Boulevard and North High Street, with Jackson Boulevard accounting for eight of those locations.

As in Cape Girardeau, all those areas are high-traffic areas, Barnes said.

The population of the two towns is quite different. For the last census in 2010, Cape Girardeau’s population was 37,995, and Jackson was 13,748, although both cities are growing.

Using that population total in 2015, Cape Girardeau police wrote about 10 tickets per 100 residents.

The city had about five accidents per 100 residents.

In 2014, the latest year where statistics were available, Jackson wrote about 10 tickets per 100 residents. Jackson averages about three accidents per 100 residents.

Other comparisons

Sikeston, Missouri, had a population of 16,318 according to the last census. Since 2012, the total number of citations issued by the Sikeston Department of Public Safety has declined; 2,216 in 2012, 1,569 in 2013, 1,070 in 2014 and 1,673 in 2015. Of those citations, 181 were in accidents in 2015, 229 in 2014, 245 in 2013 and 295 in 2012. Sikeston issued about 10 tickets per 100 residents in 2015.

Sikeston public-information officer Jim McMillen said the decline was because Sikeston had been down officers in the patrol division and just now is getting back to full strength.

The top citations in 2015 included 231 tickets for speeding, 222 for not having proof of insurance, 147 for stop-sign violation, 99 for defective or improper equipment and 77 for driving while suspended.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop E covers 13 counties in Southeast Missouri, including Cape Girardeau and Scott counties. The highway patrol had 3,182 citations and arrests in 2015, 3,281 citations and arrests in 2014 and 3,241 citation and arrests in 2013.

In 2015, Troop E had 901 speeding violations, 861 seat-belt violations and 264 failure to maintain financial responsibility.

bkleine@semissourian.com

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