Springfield Police say they are increasing speeding enforcement

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — To keep Springfield safe, the Springfield Police Department (SPD) announced they will be increasing speeding enforcement.

According to an SPD Facebook post, the department encourages drivers to slow down and pay attention.

“Speed is one of the top two contributing factors involved in traffic fatalities and YOU have the power to help keep yourself and your neighbors safe,” said the SPD post.

“The Traffic Unit’s focus is education through enforcement,” said Sgt. Ben Haines, acting lieutenant of SPD’s Traffic Unit. “By following posted speed limits, drivers can have an immediate impact on the safety of Springfield roads.”

Speed is an ongoing issue for parents like Nathan Hayes, who lives near Blaine Street just off of Division Street in Springfield. He says while it’s nice to say that police are going to make more of an effort to control speeding throughout the city, he’s gotta see it to believe it.

“Once we start seeing the presence around and seeing the slower traffic and seeing the more cautious drivers, then we’ll put faith more into our speed and into our law enforcement,” Hayes said.

Sargeant Ben Haines with SPD says the toughest part of the job is having to make that phone call to a loved one because they were involved in a crash.

“Obviously, it’s harder to double the speed on the highway, but we still have people trying and that’s the kind of behavior we want to stop so that we don’t have people getting hurt or killed and then having to make those phone calls to families and let them know what happened to their loved one,” said Haines.

Officers will be placed all across the city, including Highway 60 and 65, to get people to slow down.

“Essentially that’s what we’re going to do, patrol cars and motor motorcycles. The motorcycles are very, very useful tool for catching speeders because they’re so maneuverable and they can catch up very quickly,” Haines said. “But we’ll definitely be around highways slowing people down. We’ll be checking the school zones, especially these first few weeks of school, and just pretty much anywhere in town that we feel that there’s a need.”

Police say of the 14 fatal crashes in Springfield in 2024, three were a result of speeding and three involved impairment.

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