LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The La Vergne Police Department kicked off their "Operation Safe Streets" initiative Monday, leading to more than 80 traffic stops on the first day alone.  

Now through August, law enforcement in the area will be looking for speeding, reckless driving, hands-free cellphone violations, move over law compliance, and red light/stop sign violations.  

“My message to the public is clear: when you are in La Vergne, we are going to be out patrolling and making sure people are driving responsibly,” said La Vergne Police Chief Chris Moews. “I can tell you, preliminary data, La Vergne Police Department made 85 stops yesterday and we're looking further into that data at this point in time and we are collecting data from our partner agencies, Rutherford County Sheriff and THP.” 

The three agencies will be working together to address problem areas around La Vergne based on crash data and the public’s input. On Monday, they focused on 11 hot spots.  

“Murfreesboro Road, Industrial Road, we had Holland Ridge, and Dick Buchannan as a couple other, Mason, Chaney Boulevard were also a few of them,” Moews said. “These were all areas that really the public spoke about and wanted us to react to and we have had some really positive reactions to our efforts.” 

Last year, the City of La Vergne saw almost 1,100 crashes, with three of them fatal, and 183 injury crashes.  

“This is not a ticket initiative, that was made clear, the discretion is given to each individual officer from each department and we just ask that they go out there and make the stops when they see the violations,” Moews added. “We're trying to do this so that people are driving more safely during our summer months, and this is going to be something that's going to be sporadic throughout the summer on different dates and at different times. 

La Vergne police will also continue to take feedback from the public on problem areas they'd like to see addressed through their safe streets survey. 

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/la-vergne-makes-85-traffic-stops-on-first-day-of-operation-safe-streets/