In its first weekend with a rebranded effort to allow Porter County residents to report traffic problems on the more than 800 miles of unincorporated county roads, the Porter County Sheriff’s Office received over 30 tips via its new Project Safe Roads tab on the sheriff’s website. That’s compared to just 50 in all of 2023.
“It definitely ramped up a bit,” said Sgt. Ben McFalls, public information officer for the Porter County Sheriff. “It was being handled in the past, but now it’s being handled on our website.”
The Porter County Sheriff’s Office app will also soon offer the Project Safe Roads tip option.
“As your Sheriff, building relationships with all Porter County Citizens is very important to me. One way of doing this is by partnering with our citizens when it comes to traffic safety,” Sheriff Jeffrey Balon said in a Feb. 9 release. “Even though our Patrol Officers actively look for traffic violations, unfortunately we cannot always be everywhere all of the time.”
A traffic complaint can be submitted by visiting www.portercountysheriff.com and clicking on the Project Safe Roads tab across the top of the site. This brings up a form for submission.
Patrol Commander Lt. Jason Praschak will either handle the complaint personally or assign it to the patrol division. A representative from the agency will reach out if further information is needed and targeted enforcement will then be assigned to the patrol division for the area reported.
McFalls explained traffic problems were previously reported under Submit-a-Tip, but residents preferred to use that for complaints of crime. The new Project Safe Roads tab is working as intended with complaints of traffic backups, speeding and drivers racing past school buses stopped for children.
The current high volume of calls will likely be worked out through officers working overtime, McFalls said. Then, as the problem areas are dealt with and diminish, they should be able to be absorbed into the regular patrol schedules. Funding may be pursued with grant applications.
“Please remember, just because you may not see us, doesn’t mean we are not there,” Balon said. “Oftentimes, we will add extra enforcement by using unmarked police vehicles or other means of monitoring traffic.”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.