Sheriff'€™s deputies to cruise parish for Operation Safe Streets

For the second time in seven months, Sheriff’s Office deputies will blitz north, east and western St. Tammany Parish neighborhoods this weekend to ticket speeders, seat belt violators and halt other driver infractions, officials announced.

Dubbed “Operation Safe Streets,” the crackdown scheduled for Saturday, is an attempt to change and improve driver behavior on community streets.

“The most common complaint received by the Sheriff’s Office is excessive speeding and adherence to traffic signs in subdivisions,” Sheriff’ Office spokesman Capt. George Bonnett said. “These complaints come from every area of the parish.”

“Operation Safe Streets” first debuted March 20 when roughly 50 deputies fanned out in 25 subdivisions throughout the parish. By day’s end, 919 tickets were written, but Sheriff Jack Strain called the operation a failure and vowed to continue the effort. Strain said despite the heavy presence of deputies, driving behavior didn’t change, evident with at least one speeder who received a ticket leaving for work and another on his way home.

Phase II was then instituted, the first of four non-consecutive days deputies will target neighborhoods. Other dates are scheduled for Wednesday July 30, Friday Aug. 8, and Saturday Aug. 16th. Patrols will last from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“We are publicizing this information with the idea that warned drivers will be safe drivers,” Bonnett said.

The targeted areas for phase II Saturday include the following neighborhoods:

Eden Isles, Flowers Estates, Lake Ramsey, Quail Ridge, Ingram Estates, Penn Mill Lakes, Ozone Woods, Marigny Trace, Bel Air, Tallow Creek, Coin Du Lestin, Madison Farm, Magnolia Forest, Arrowood, Hickory Hills and Timber Branch.