The Portland Police Bureau has released a new video that aims to explain why they do speed enforcement. Put simply, the video’s narrator Officer Ron Hoesly says, it’s because “speed kills.”
“We don’t do it to write tickets we don’t have a quota,” Officer Hoesly says in the short video just posted to the PPB’s Facebook page. “I’ve seen the results of speed and crashes. I’ve seen the destruction, I’ve seen the carnage from speed-involved crashes. They’re horrific events. I’ve seen bodies ripped apart.”
Advertisement
Hoesly is a veteran member of the bureau’s Traffic Division. Back in 2006 I joined him on a regular patrol and we did a speed enforcement mission on Highway 26 up by the Oregon Zoo. It was like shooting fish in a barrel the way he pulled over speeders one after another.
Of note with this video is that it’s clearly part of the Bureau of Transportation’s Vision Zero efforts. Back in August we reported how the PPB has also added language about their commitment to Vision Zero to all outgoing press releases.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org