The Weldon Police Department is seeing results after receiving a North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program grant for traffic enforcement, Chief Christopher Davis said Thursday.
The grant, which requires a local match, gave the department a traffic enforcement officer, a Mustang patrol car with stealth wrap, radar, a computer, and other equipment.
Davis chose Corporal Anthony Dickens for the position. “He’s done real well in that position. Traffic citations have gone up at least 50 percent. Traffic accidents have gone down by probably 50 percent.”
The Mustang is like the one the North Carolina State Highway Patrol uses and one the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office has. “We’ve gotten more positive comments than we have negative.”
One of the reasons the department applied for the grant was what Davis described as a consistent three-year period where the number of crashes was going up. “It might not have been a big percent, but they were going up every year.”
There are 16,503 drivers who travel Highway 158 daily. Between 2018 and 2022, Davis said Halifax County was ranked 34th of 100 counties in speed-related fatalities; 31st in unrestrained fatalities; and 28th in alcohol-related fatalities.
The investment through the grant seems to be paying off. “We have certain goals that we’ve got to meet throughout our yearly reviews,” Davis said, meeting three out of three goals.
Grants like these help small departments like Weldon. “We don’t want to be a stagnant department,” the chief said. “We want to be as proactive as possible and try to get ahead instead of falling behind. We voiced our opinion to our board members about that and they’ve been very forthcoming, helping us out — not only with this grant, but allowing us to put up cameras throughout the town of Weldon.”
There are 27 camera views throughout the town with Verkada. While he wouldn’t share specific locations, Davis said, “Anytime you come into Weldon, you’re going to be caught on camera.”
Finishing the camera project this month, Davis said the town has seen results. “We’ve had an opportunity to utilize it to help solve some crimes that have been committed in town and also to assist us with traffic accidents where there’s a conflict of who did it.”
While there have been legal challenges to camera systems, the chief said he believes their use falls into the plain view doctrine. “If you’re out there in public, you can expect to be taped or to have someone take pictures of you.”
The camera system was purchased through town appropriations, Davis said.
While the camera system and the $124,752 GHSP grant have helped, the department is working with a full complement of officers. “It’s been a combination of everything,” Davis said. “We need our board to have our back in reference to all these things, which they have. “They want Weldon to be a safe community. A lot of people view Weldon as a dangerous place to go but we’re trying to change that view. We want people to know that we’re getting more officers to be seen out there. We’ve got our cameras up now. We’re working on speeders, people running stop signs and stoplights so hopefully that will reduce our accidents throughout town.”
