A La Porte man remains in the Starke County Justice Center after a weekend police pursuit in Starke County.
Members of the Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership were conducting a sobriety checkpoint on Saturday, March 17, on U.S. 30 and 600 E. when the driver of an orange colored passenger car allegedly disregarded a stop sign at that intersection. The vehicle then traveled west on U.S. 30 at a high rate of speed.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Office, Knox City Police Department and Walkerton Police Department are teaming up to combat aggressive driving and impaired driving.
These officers working under the Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership consortium will be setting up sobriety checkpoints around Starke County to deter, detect and arrest drivers who are driving under the influence. Police will man the checkpoints on Saturday, March 17 between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. at undisclosed locations.
The LaPorte City Police Department and the Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership recently wrapped up the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign.
Officers from the Knox, North Judson and Hamlet Police Departments, plus the Starke County Sheriff’s Department wrote 63 citations, arrested six on Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated charges, and made eight other criminal arrests. Coordinator Dave Combs from the Knox City Police Department noted that officers worked 136 hours in extra patrols to keep the roadways safe from impaired drivers.
Law enforcement from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department and North Judson, Hamlet and Knox City Police Departments stopped a total of 221 vehicles and issued a total of 74 citations related to aggressive driving. A total of 12 Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated arrests were made and six others were arrested on non-alcohol related charges.
Officers from the Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership are pleased with the outcome of a Friday sobriety checkpoint. They stopped 40 vehicles in North Judson at the intersection of Talmer and Schricker Avenues as part of an Operation Pull Over Blitz.
Driver Sober or Get Pulled Over will begin Friday, March 8 and will continue through March 24. Due to the increase rate of alcohol consumption these events inspire, it’s a dangerous time on Indiana roadways and police want to keep roadways as safe as possible. Operation Pull Over is a federally-funded enforcement initiative administered by the Traffic Safety division of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.
Travel is expected to increase this year for the Labor Day holiday.
Despite a sluggish economy and recent rises in gas prices, the increase in travelers is driven by improving consumer confidence compared to last year.
About 85 percent of holiday travelers will journey by car and the average distance traveled by Americans is expected to be 626 miles, with a great deal of those miles to be traveled by air.
Many travelers in this area will headed to the Blueberry Festival in Plymouth and to the Monterey Days Festival this weekend. Remember that the Indiana State Police the Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department will be out in full force patrolling for unrestrained motorists, impaired drivers and those who drive at unsafe speeds.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership will be working additional hours from now until Sept. 3 to enforce impaired driving and seat belt laws.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department, and Hamlet, North Judson and Knox Police Departments will be looking for all traffic violations including seat belts, texting while driving, driving while intoxicated and more. Officers will be issuing traffic citations in an attempt to combat the growing number of traffic accidents in the county.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership is working in conjunction with the state’s Operation Pullover Blitz 72.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership will be conducting a Safe Family Travel patrol beginning this Friday and it will continue through November 27th.
This blitz is a grant from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute and will focus on impaired drivers and seat belt enforcement. This grant will allow additional officers to enforce these laws and they will not be giving out warnings. They will be issuing tickets to those who are in violation of these laws.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership will be conducting a Safe Family Travel patrol November 11th through November 27th.
This blitz is a grant from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute and will focus on impaired drivers and seat belt enforcement.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership will be conducting a Traffic Safety Blitz today through Sunday, September 25th. Officers will be working additional hours seeking impaired or dangerous drivers and enforcing traffic safety laws.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership recently participated in an Operation Pull Over Enforcement and gave out 11 speeding warnings, 45 equipment violation warnings, 1 open container ticket, 13 speeding citations, 5 Driving While Intoxicated arrests and 1 warrant arrest. This blitz was in accordance with the Indiana Governor’s Council on Impaired or Dangerous Driving.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership will be conducting a Rural Demonstration Project beginning Friday, April 29th through Sunday, May 15th. This is a special grant to be used for truck seatbelt enforcement.
During the Traffic Safety Partnership’s last enforcement blitz, 10 officers spent 41 hours on increased traffic patrol. 4 seat belt citations were given, 1 misdemeanor DUI arrest was made, 1 criminal misdemeanor arrest was made, 1 criminal felony arrest was made and 14 speed violations were recorded. 47 traffic warnings were issued with a total of 65 vehicles being stopped. The enforcement ran from February 26th through March 4th.
Police officers will be out during the New Year’s Day holiday weekend and they will be on the lookout for drunk drivers. Jeremiah Patrick, Coordinator of the Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership, reports that officers from the organization will be out in force this weekend. The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership includes officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department, Knox City Police Department and the North Judson Police Department. Officers from the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department will also be out in force to help detect drunk drivers.
Here is just some of the news that made the news in the Kankakee Valley this week:
The WKVI Food Drive at the Knox Mall was a success last Saturday $2,167.73 was collected and over 2,500 pounds of food was collected.
It was announced that the Starke United Radio Auction is scheduled for Friday, December 3rd, and it will be broadcast live beginning at 10:00 a.m. on WKVI AM 1520.
Dr. Walter Fritz will be stepping down as the Starke County Health Officer at the end of the year. He will be replaced by Dr. Teresa Alexander.
Christina D. Orange of North Judson and Stephen Adrian Braasch of Argos were arrested Saturday, November 20th by the North Judson Police Department. They were arrested on methamphetamine related charges.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership and the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office were honored at the recent Annual Operation Pull Over Awards Banquet. Both entities received Equipment Awards to purchase law enforcement equipment of their choice.
The Knox City Council approved the second reading of an ordinance to prohibit the sale and possession of synthetic marijuana in the city limits. Several questions were raised by Knox Mayor Rick Chambers about the enforceability of the ordinance.
Starke County Development Director, Charles Weaver, appeared before the County Commissioners at its most recent meeting. He asked the Board to sign an application to be submitted to the Indiana Department of Transportation to classify County Road 300 East between Culver Road south and State Road 8 on the north as a rural major collector.
Anthony Ferris attempted to escape from the LaPorte County Security Complex, Wednesday morning. He was quickly apprehended by the LaPorte County K9 unit.
And that is just some of the news that made the news in the Kankakee Valley this week.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership was among several law enforcement agencies who were recently honored during the 16th Annual Operation Pull Over Awards Banquet in Carmel, Indiana.
The Starke County Traffic Safety Partnership received an award for Outstanding OPO Partnership. The organization also received a $2,500 Equipment Award to be used for the purchase of law enforcement equipment of their choice. The TSP members include the Knox City Police Department, North Judson Police Department, and the Starke County Sheriff’s Department.
