CROWLEY, La. (KLFY)- Crowley Police have a new program to increase safety by encouraging drivers to slow down.

Traffic Enforcement Detail or TED is the program aimed at enforcing the speed limit within the corporate boundaries of Crowley.
It started in June. Off-duty officers work for a five hour period in return for extra money.
Crowley Police Chief Jimmy Broussard said, “If our presence as well as the presence of other communities can help slow these people down, get them thinking more defensively, more safety-wise, than our hope is that we will decrease the number of accidents or wrecks.”

Since the Traffic Enforcement Detail program started in June, Crowley Police officers have written close to 300 citations for speeding within the corporate boundaries of Crowley.
Funding comes from the city budget.
“Officers are paid equivalent to 2.1 time their hourly rate which is an encouragement which equivocates to about 30-something dollars an hour, but they work for a five hour period,” added Chief Broussard.

Any off-duty officer that is certified to work a LIDAR Radar can volunteer five hours to help enforce the speed limit.
“It is not part of those that are working patrol,” said Broussard. “These officers can only work the detail if they are off duty. In fact, they can’t even take a day of vacation and work it. They have to work their regular scheduled hours and then they work this detail on their off time.”

Broussard said this program allows the ability to free up his patrol officers while others work the TED’s program.
“There is no limit. If they write 50 tickets in a five hour time, more power to them. If they’re not able to write one because everybody’s obeying the law, even better,” the chief added.
Broussard said no officer is ordered to work the program.