MOORPARK : Radar Sign to Warn Speeding Motorists

Beginning Monday, police in Moorpark will let a machine do some of the work in warning speeders.

The city has bought a radar-equipped trailer that clocks motorists’ speed, then flashes it to them on a big digital signboard.

“Somebody coming down the road (is) going to see the large fluorescent numbers changing as their speed changes,” explained Sgt. Keith Parks of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which serves Moorpark. “Above the trailer is a bracket that holds a posted speed limit sign for that particular street. . . . They’re going to be reminded to slow down.”

The $9,000, solar-powered radar display will be towed to a new location in Moorpark every day by the Pruner Health Services ambulance company, depending on where chronic speeding problems are reported to deputies, Parks said.

“Our station in Camarillo has had one for years,” Parks said. “We borrowed it last summer and we got a lot of good community response on it. We’ve had a lot of calls from people saying, ‘Oh, can you bring that thing down to my street? We’ve got a lot of speeders down here.’ ”

The city of Thousand Oaks recently bought two of the radar trailers.