GLENDALE, AZ — Speeding continues to be a big problem on Valley roads, and a deadly problem all across Arizona. Every day, at least one person dies in a speed-related crash across the state.
To bring numbers down, the West Valley Speed Task Force was convened in 2024. Since then, they've deployed over 20 times and made over 4,500 traffic stops.
“That’s all the West Valley agencies, to include Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Public Safety working with us today," Officer Brian Schlingman with the Glendale Police Department said.
ABC15 rode along with Officer Schlingman this week, as he headed over to a residential area where neighbors have been complaining to the department about constant speeders. Within a minute, his radar gun gets a driver going 43 in the 25-mile-per-hour zone.
Helping in the effort is a new radar system that the City of Glendale has committed to spending $600,000 to put in every patrol car in the fleet.
“It’s designed to be used when you’re driving down the roadway," Schlingman says.
Instead of parking and hiding, Officer Schlingman can see the speeds of the cars around him, even if they're heading in the opposite direction or are hundreds of yards away.
“I actually saw him the other day pull someone else over on that side of the street," one driver, Jay, said after getting pulled over by Officer Schlingman, who was using his moving radar. "Sometimes when we’re rushed, we do things to make up time, but it costs us more time.”
Officer Schlingman says he has been told every excuse in the book about why drivers were speeding — from being late to having to use the bathroom. Still, he says he has responded to too many deadly crash scenes in his career to accept any of these excuses from drivers as to why they can't slow down.
“It's one of those things where sometimes speeding isn't intentional, if you're going 10 over, maybe you didn't realize it," Officer Schlingman said. "But 80, 90, 100 miles an hour, at that point it’s intentional. In those moments, if you get into an accident at those speeds, someone is likely going to die; that’s something you can’t take back.”
On Wednesday, the West Valley Task Force made over 215 stops, and they deploy twice every month.