CINCINNATI — Officers in Cincinnati are wrapping up their two-week "safety blitz." This time, CPD isn't just pulling over drivers for traffic violations in neighborhoods. More officers were patrolling interstates within the city limits.
"54 in a 30, that's a big no-no," said Officer Alejandro Santa Jordan as he was clocking a driver speeding while on patrol in Columbia-Tusculum this past December.
We've been posting about some of the speeds we’ve been citing drivers for during our current traffic safety enforcement blitz.
— Cincinnati Police Department (@CincyPD) December 9, 2022
In this video you get to virtually ride along with Officer Alejandro Santa Jordan during a traffic stop he made in Columbia-Tusculum on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/z1dkr28EZ3
"The goal is not give out as many tickets as possible," said Santa Jordan. "We do want to work with people, but they have to follow the law."
From Jan. 30 to Feb. 10, CPD conducted a "Traffic Safety Enforcement Blitz." During this time, officers said they are not just focused on issuing traffic citations, but educating drivers about why they were pulled over. Each traffic stop doesn't necessarily mean the driver will get a ticket. The officer, at their discretion, may just issue the driver a warning.
"It's different ... normally you see troopers, but I guess something is going on that I'm not aware of," said Rober Casmon, who is from Cleveland and said he noticed two CPD cars pulling over drivers on the interstate.
WCPO checked out the latest CPD traffic data to see what kind of results they're getting by pulling over drivers on the interstate. Since the blitz started, Cincinnati police pulled over 18 cars for violations. Ten of them were on I-71 and the majority of them happened on Wednesday alone. Officers pulled over seven cars on I-75 and one on I-74. The data shows in all of the cases, CPD issued traffic citations.
"As long as they're keeping our highways safe, I mean that's the most important part so I guess I don't really care who's patrolling," said Chrissie Blatt from Indian Hill.
Blatt feels these blitzes are important, especially for teenagers on the road who may not have that much experience behind the wheel.
"We do one at a time, we're trying to you know change every driver," said Santa Jordan, who pulled over a driver going 24 mph over the speed limit. "He's unhappy about it, but you can still try to de-escalate the situation, be nice. As long as you are professional, they, at the end of the day, they understand."
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