ADRIAN — The Adrian Police Department is planning to step up traffic enforcement by dedicating a car specifically to traffic issues, police chief Vince Emrick told the city commission on Oct. 20.

“We’ve had a lot of serious accidents lately, and I’ve been getting increased complaints,” Emrick said.

Research into the data showed that there is an increasing problem, he said.  According to the Office of Highway Safety Planning, although Michigan’s overall crash fatality rate rose only a little in 2024, there were sharp increases in crashes and fatalities involving vulnerable roadway users such as pedestrians and cyclists. In addition, teen deaths rose 17% and deaths resulting from distracted driving rose 10%. 

In the city of Adrian, since January 2024, there have been 845 total crashes, of which 46 resulted in minor injuries, 10 resulted in serious injuries, and three caused death. 

“You don’t have to think too hard to think of some pretty tragic things that have happened in the city,” Emrick said.

The most common crash locations during that period were:

• Intersection of Main and Beecher streets (43 crashes).
• Main and Metcalf, near Friendly Village (26 crashes).
• U.S. 223 and Main (18 crashes).
• Division and Beecher streets (18 crashes).
• U.S. 223 and Sand Creek Highway (17 crashes).
• Winter and Beecher streets (15 crashes). 

Emrick noted that the intersection of Main Street and Siena Heights Drive used to be the city’s worst spot for accidents until traffic control at that intersection was changed. “So efforts do work,” he said. “If we can find a solution, they do work and it reduces crashes in that area.”

In response to the increased complaints, the Adrian Police Department is planning to go back to having a dedicated traffic unit on all shifts. 

“It’s a dedicated police vehicle for traffic enforcement,” Emrick said. “It’s built a little differently; it’s got a lower profile so it’s harder to tell that it’s a police car coming at you until you’re already past them.”

Although it will be lower-profile, Emrick said, it will still be clearly marked as a police car.

The traffic unit will focus on areas where data shows the greatest need and where there are the most complaints. The officers assigned to the traffic unit will not be dispatched to service calls unless absolutely necessary, with those calls instead being handled by regular patrol units. The vehicle also won’t have a divider between the front and back seats, meaning it will not handle arrests. If an officer assigned to the traffic unit encounters a drunk driver or a warrant arrest, another patrol car will assist them.

Emrick said the costs can be handled entirely within the police department’s current budget, in part because more state funding ended up being available for sending new officers to the police academy than the city originally anticipated.

The vehicle will be leased rather than purchased, Emrick said, so that “if it’s not having the desired outcome, then we’re not locked in.”

Commissioner Gordon Gauss asked about speed monitoring signs that display drivers’ speeds to them. Emrick said the department does sometimes use a speed display sign, but it’s “kind of a double-edged sword.”

“People were almost using it as a challenge to see how fast they could get it to read out,” he said. 

City administrator Chad Baugh asked Emrick to clarify whether the unit would have a “zero tolerance” approach to traffic violations or whether officers would still have discretion about whether to ticket drivers. Emrick said officers will still have discretion, because the goal is to change behavior, not to write the maximum amount of citations.

Baugh, who was the police chief in Canton Township before becoming Adrian’s city administrator, also thanked Emrick for taking a measured approach to the idea of leasing vehicles, which he said is becoming more prevalent in policing.