Monterey Police bring back special officers to focus on driver and pedestrian safety

Monterey Police have dedicated two officers to traffic enforcement in the city.

The department couldn’t spare to put officers out on traffic enforcement in the past due to staffing shortages.

“It’s like a slowdown, no one’s coming, so no cop, no stop,” said Monterey resident, Bianca Rosa.

Thanks to the Monterey Police Department’s revived traffic unit, drivers will have to get used to making a complete stop. The two officers are dedicated to enforcing traffic laws seven days a week.

“Primary goal is to go out, enforce and educate the public. That’s through doing traffic stops, writing tickets, giving warnings and also just educating people that I contact about proper driving safety,” said Monterey Police and motor officer, Wayland Kopp.

Pedestrians KION spoke to in Monterey peeved over drivers behaving badly.

“Coming down David someone ran the stop. I was on my bike so I just fishtailed out of the way but I was getting ready to just lay down on the hood of that car,” said Rosa.

Monterey resident, Evens Lanot said, “Especially on Del Monte for instance when drivers are changing lanes, they don’t give, put on their signals or when turning left for instance, if the light is about to go red, they just, or even after it goes red, they turn left and not waiting for the green light.”

Police said the major issues are speeding and distracted driving.

“People are stuck to their phones, computers, laptops, I’ve seen people reading books even in cars,” said Officer Kopp.

There’s a trend officers seen on where and when the crashes happen. Many accidents happen on the main roadways, Lighthouse, Del Monte and Fremont and they tend to happen during rush hour.

“This is a tourist town, we have a lot of people who are unfamiliar with the roadways, unfamiliar with the signs, unfamiliar with the area, they’re just lost trying to find out where to go, and they definitely can cause hazards by crossing when they’re not supposed to,” said Officer Kopp.

Monterey has a population of just under 30,000 people but when the tourism season hits and big events come to town that population can double, even triple which is why police want to keep everyone safe.