WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — The Wheat Ridge Police Department has been able to monitor drivers that are speeding around the city, thanks to a program that includes a black box. “We’ve been coming up on this program being here in Wheat Ridge for about 2 years now, but we started publicly posting the data regularly back in December of 2023," said Alex Rose, spokesperson for the Wheat Ridge Police Department.
"The idea behind this is, it gives a really good idea of where we need to put our resources to best enforce speeding in our community." The department currently has two black boxes, in addition to the crash and traffic (CAT) team. Officers are able to set-up the boxes at different intersections for about seven days and collect data, that includes how many vehicles are passing through, the posted speed limit, and those who are going over the speed limit.
“It is kind of eye opening when you see a weeklong snapshot of thousands or ten of thousands of cars that are going through your neighborhood. Sometimes even for us it confirms that it is a problem spot," Rose said. According to Rose, one of the problem spots is 32nd avenue and Holland street , near Wheat Ridge High School.
Earlier this year between January 9-16, the data showed 41,174 cars drove through the intersection, the fastest driver was going 68 mph, in an area where the speed limit is 30 mph. 15% of cars were going 7+ mph over the speed limit and 6% of cars (2,366) were going 10+ mph over the speed limit on west 32.