Residents to Clock Cars on Radar Guns

The City Council has unanimously approved a six-month trial for a program that will allow residents to borrow radar guns and monitor speeding in their neighborhoods.

Under the plan, the first of its kind in Ventura County, civilians trained to use the radar guns would gauge whether cars are driving beyond the speed limit where they live. The plan was proposed by the county Sheriff’s Department and city traffic engineers.

Traffic monitors would report license plate numbers and speed readings of apparent violators to police, who would mail warning letters. Registered owners of cars caught speeding three times would receive a visit from police to warn them in person. However, civilian monitoring will not result in any tickets.

The idea was approved by the city’s Traffic and Transportation Advisory Commission in the spring. It will now get a six-month trial using two extra radar guns owned by Thousand Oaks and the Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s Department officials said about 90% of all complaints they receive in Thousand Oaks have to do with traffic and speeding.

Likewise, city traffic engineers said that they are frequently asked by homeowner groups to place speed humps in residential neighborhoods to combat speeding, but that the neighborhoods often fail to meet the traffic requirements.

They hope the radar guns will give those neighborhood groups another way of attacking the problem.