Connecticut State Police aim to catch speeding drivers more efficiently this summer with 89 new laser guns. The laser devices, distributed among troopers throughout the state, arrived just in time for three of Connecticut’s busiest speeding months, said a state police spokesman. State police doled out 37,615 speeding citations in the first half of 2008, a 16 percent increase over the same period in 2007, reports the Waterbury Republican-American..
With the more advanced lasers given to officers over the past week, police said the department hopes to continue the trend in increased speeding citations into 2009. The new laser equipment, at $167,720, comes from a highway safety grant. The older equipment is still effective and in use, but police said the new lasers read a vehicle’s speed at a greater distance, often before laser detectors can pick up the trooper’s signal. A spike in vacationers traveling state highways between July and September virtually guarantees an influx of speeders, police said.