The Niceville Police Department wants you to know they will give out many tickets between April 24 and 26.
Police will hawk John Sims Parkway between Government Avenue and Rocky Bayou Drive during those dates – “I assure you, we are going to be writing a lot of tickets,” Lovering told the council, “I don’t like using the words ‘zero tolerance,’ but that day, anyone who is caught speeding will get a ticket.”
Interim Police Chief Rob Lovering announced ‘Operation Save the Date,’ a traffic enforcement operation that includes both side of Boggy Bayou, Niceville Police and Valparaiso Police. Chief Lovering hopes to add The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Highway Patrol before the operation commences.
The chief asked drivers to report reckless driving or speeding during that time as well.
“We don’t want it to be a surprise to people. We want to let them know when we are going to be out there and what’s going to happen,” Lovering Added
Last week, Eglin Air Force Base announced they would enforce 100% ID checks for all passengers entering base who are 16 or older.
Chief Lovering noted this to the council – and expressed his concern about the traffic issues it would cause miles away in Niceville. This policy on base will “slow down our traffic tremendously,” Lovering told the council, “The reason I tell you that – from what I’ve experienced in the past, people in your position my be able to write letters to encourage them to go back to the way it was, because this is going to cause traffic problems for everybody.”
Mayor Daniel Henkel confirmed what Lovering told the council, but said that the 100% ID check was necessary. “They are doing this for heightened reasons. There is a lot of stuff going on in the world right now. And, as you know, we have an issue with a lot of folks coming in – and I’m sure some of them are terrorists.”
Chief Lovering also revealed the crime statistics for March. In March, the police responded to about 2,300 calls for service – toward the lower end of their monthly calls for service per month. They cited 295 people for traffic infractions and arrested 15 people, nine for felonies.