PUEBLO, Colo. (KOAA) — A Pueblo Police sergeant is pushing to use technology to help crack down on speeders and ultimately save lives.
Sgt. Michael Sincerbox gave a presentation to the city council during a work session at the end of July outlining his plan and vision. His vision is in line with "Vision Zero," a movement to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries. There have been federal, state and efforts toward zero traffic deaths in Colorado.
"It changes the way we're enforcing, the way we're engineering, and utilizes traffic engineers, law enforcement, and technology in order to get there to reduce and ultimately eliminate these types of crashes," Sgt. Sincerbox explained.
When it comes to the proposal of speed cameras, Sgt. Sincerbox believes the tech will change driver behavior in Pueblo.
"This is not revenue-generating," Sgt. Sincerbox explained. "The legislature specifically put limits on the financial burden on the public, but what it is is to change driving behavior."
Sgt. Sincerbox points to data from 2019 to 2024 as a reason to implement speed cameras in certain areas of the city. According to that data, 39 people were killed in a crash where speed was a factor in those six years, about 41 percent of fatal traffic crashes.
The issue of speeding is also highlighted by the number of citations issued in certain parts of the city over the past five years:
-Northern Avenue: 2,319 citations issued, 1,078 for speeding.
-Pueblo Boulevard: 1,888 citations issued, 1,030 for speeding.
-Thatcher Avenue/Lincoln Street/4th Street: 2,873 citations, 1,663 for speeding.
"It's not just Pueblo," Sgt. Sincerbox added. "It is throughout the United States.... we get the community complaints on residential streets, on main thoroughfares, and we are actively out there, but we can't be everywhere at once. We're literally chasing the problem. So far this year, we've generated a little over 1,000 speeding citations."
Thanks to SB23-200, a city may designate all or a portion of a street as a corridor to locate a system to detect traffic violations, under specified circumstances. There will need to be a sign 300 feet before the start of the corridor, and a sign not fewer than 300 feet before each camera within the corridor thereafter.
Sgt. Sincerbox broke his proposal for speed cameras into two tiers, and he hopes that he can implement tier one in 2026. Tier one is the higher-priority corridors based on the data he presented.
TIER ONE INCLUDES:
-DILLON DR: EAGLERIDGE TO W. 29TH
-W. 29TH: DILLON TO BALTIMORE
-HWY 45: W. 11TH TO LAKE
-HWY 96: BANDERA TO MIDTOWN
-NORTHERN: VENTANA TO SANTA FE
-PRAIRIE: THATCHER TO PUEBLO BLVD.
-HWY 96: BRADFORD TO BEAUMONT
-HWY 50: 13TH TO NORTHERN
-JOPLIN: E. 4TH TO STOCKYARD
-TROY: CESAR CHAVEZ TO HWY 50
-CESAR CHAVEZ: DILLON TO MM3 (CITY LIMIT)
TIER TWO INCLUDES:
-TUXEDO: W. 25TH TO W. 18TH
-W 24TH: PUEBLO BLVD. TO TUXEDO
-ABRIENDO: CLEVELAND TO WASHINGTON
-MAIN: ABRIENDO TO W. 13TH
-UNION: W. ABRIENDO TO CITY CENTER
-LAKE: E. ABRIENDO TO PUEBLO BLVD.
As for the citation process, nothing is in stone yet. In his presentation Sgt. Sincerbox says violation will be detected if someone is driving 11 MPH or more over the posted speed limit. The evidence would include a driver photo, license plate photo, video and speed of the offender. A police department employee would verify the violation, and a citation would be mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle:
-$40 fine for normal speed zone. violation, no points
-$80 fine for school zone or construction zone speed violation, no points
-Personal service for any misdemeanor traffic violation, 25 mph over the posted speed limit with a mandatory court appearance.
A driver could dispute the citation by contesting driver identification and a not guilty plea handled within the municipal court.
Sgt. Sincerbox is still receiving requests for proposals from more than half a dozen companies to weigh costs and equipment capabilities. Based on the red light program in Pueblo, Sincerbox estimates it could cost more than $100,000 a month to run the program to include three civilian employees, but his hope is to run the program at zero-cost thanks to the citation fees.
"People think it's a big brother situation or a gotcha situation," Sgt. Sincerbox said. "Which it's not... we have to utilize a technology that's available. The legislature has given us the ability to do that, so we have to sit there and adjust the behavior in another way."
Sincerbox pointing to Fort Collins and the success they have had with speed cameras, with each of their cameras generating about 30 citations per day, for a total average of about 12,600 citations per month.
After receiving requests for proposals, Sgt. Sincerbox will have to present the information to his chief and once again to city council. If approved, Sincerbox believes we could see speed cameras in Pueblo sometime next year.
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