EAST LANSING, Mich. — The East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) and Michigan State University Police Department (MSUPD) are continuing to collaborate on a distracted driving enforcement initiative in the East Lansing-MSU community.
ELPD and MSUPD officers went out in plain clothes and unmarked cars on Monday, Feb. 29 for a fourth round of undercover enforcement of distracted driving in the on-campus and off-campus community. The officers were specifically targeting texting and driving violations. Once the plain clothes officers witnessed a violation, a marked vehicle with uniformed personnel was dispatched to make a traffic stop. Some violations were captured on video.
Both agencies also teamed up with Cellular & More (Verizon Wireless), located at 209 E. Grand River in East Lansing, to help combat distracted driving. The five people ticketed on Monday, Feb. 29 were given a voucher to redeem at the store for any safety-related accessory at 10 percent above cost. Cellular & More is also running a promotion available to the general public. Any safety-related accessory purchased in the store is 20 percent off until March 15.
“There were significantly less violations than we have typically seen during our plain clothes enforcement. Our hope is that our efforts are having an impact on this dangerous trend,” said ELPD Lt. Scott Wriggelsworth. “With that being said, distracted driving continues to be a problem that we plan to address. Our efforts, combined with our new partnership with Cellular & More, will hopefully help in reducing the number of distracted drivers on the road and, in turn, make our community a safer place to commute.”