Multiple police agencies are getting together to conduct Operation Blue Light as we head into the holiday season.
The goal is to reduce the amount of traffic crashes.
Officers from 90 police agencies from Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, and Washtenaw counties will visibly be making their presence known on some of the busiest roads.
State police are assisting law enforcement in Macomb County.
They will also be making proactive and investigatory stops of vehicles and suspicious pedestrians, concentrating on major thoroughfares.
One of those agencies participating is Sterling Heights.
“The intersection here of Hall Road and Schoennerr is number 3 in the county, number 8 in the state for number of crashes that we have and in the city of Sterling Heights we have all of eastbound of Hall Road through here and we get a lot of rear-end crashes, a lot of inline rear end crashes where people are not paying attention,” said Lt. Aaron Burgess with the Sterling Heights Police Department.
Multiple police agencies along with state police are announcing they are cracking down on behavior that leads to crashes - including distracted driving.
“There’s just too many appealing distractions within a vehicle,” said Lt Burgess. “My officers are literally riding right along side of these drivers and you are watching them as they are texting on the phone, they are taking selfies, if you go beyond the phone end of it. You have people who are just eating food. They’re unwrapping hamburgers. They are dealing with pets that are sitting on their lap.”
Through this operation, police hope drivers will become aware of their bad behavior and instead keep their eyes on the road.
Officers will also be on the lookout for aggressive driving, something that has been on the increase lately.
“They are weaving in and out of lanes, they are not signaling, they are running red lights. Those are the type of people who kill others,” said Lt Burgess. “People who drive everyday may see 1 or 2 reports of that - if you get behind the wheel or one of the seats of our scout cars, and you see that over the course of an 8, 10 or 12 hour day, you will run into that dozens of times.”
The operation is in its sixth year. It will last from December 19, 2016 to January 1, 2017.
