Cheyenne Police: People Overestimate Speeding

Cheyenne Police Chief Brian Kozak says one reason that agency is making a radar speed gun available to the public that most people overestimate the speeds vehicles are traveling through residential areas.

The chief says he wants to concentrate traffic patrols in areas where people are actually breaking the speed limit, as opposed to areas where residents think that is happening but it really isn't. Kozak says that leads to wasted effort, because police will respond to complaints of supposed speeding when that isn't really happening.

Not only does that lead to a waste of time and money investigating non-issues, but it keeps officers from concentrating from areas where there really is a problem.

The chief says not only is there a general tendency for people to think cars are going much faster than they really are, people especially overestimate speeds of vehicles that are very large or loud or both.

The department recently launched a neighborhood speed watch program that lets residents to borrow a police radar gun for home usage. While the information collected won't be used to write tickets, it will be used to decide where to focus on traffic enforcement in the city.