Photo: Steve Baker (Flickr)
Indiana State Police plan to expand the radar program throughout the state.
Indiana State Police have unveiled a new high-speed monitor they hope will help lessen car accidents. The radar gun-like device measures the distance between two cars to see if drivers are tailgating.
It is part of an initiative known as “SWIFT” or Speed With Intent Following Too Close. Sergeant Wanda Clay helped design the program.
“We have several divisions throughout the state police and that’s dealing with commercial motor vehicles,” she says. “However, with a joint effort from the district up here which is 13, Lowell, we are utilizing this software.”
Clay says the monitors will be in both marked and unmarked police cars, cars that look like Indiana Department of Transportation vehicles and in aircraft.
“With this software there are approximately 10 Lidars, lasers I should say, that have this technology in them throughout the state,” she says.
A recent study by the IPD revealed that a car accident related to following too close happens, on average, almost once a day.
Clay says the system is currently in use in Lake County but will be expanded statewide. She says police at the Bloomington post could be among the next to receive the devices.
