County approves new radar units for officers

Speeders beware. The Donley County Sheriff’s Department will soon be watching you much closer.

The Commissioners’ Court approved a request by Sheriff Butch Blackburn to rent three radar guns for local officers during their regular meeting on Monday morning.

“I’m going to try to help pay our way,” Blackburn told commissioners.

The court agreed to rent two mounted radars and one handheld unit for $255.14 per month for three years from Stalker, a Plano, Texas, company.

The sheriff says the new radar units could pay for themselves with just three tickets being written per month. The department wrote 59 traffic tickets in December, and 18 have been written in February as of Monday. Only 36 were written in January, but Blackburn says weather conditions kept people slowed down that month.

The new sheriff says he doesn’t intend to turn his officers into “ticket cops,” but he does plan to step up enforcement.

“One day a week we’re going to be checking traffic in our school zones and on US 287,” he said.

Blackburn said patrolling on US 287 will be focused in Hedley, Lelia Lake, and Clarendon, the last of which has a contract with the department to provide police protection.

“[Clarendon] is paying us about $100,000 per year for police protection. We’re going to try to give them a little better traffic control for their money.”