At long last, could municipal police officers finally be given the go-ahead to use radar guns to enforce speed limits on local roads?

Senate Bill 535 advanced out of the chamber on Tuesday, after an overwhelming 47-3 vote, and moved to a House committee for consideration. Considering Pennsylvania’s long history of denying municipal officers access to radar guns, and a short and congested timeline before the end of the current legislative session on Nov. 30, the prospects for its triumph appear slim. Nonetheless, it’s worthy of a supporting comment here.

The futility of remedying this state of affairs defies reason. Legislation attempting to address this problem has gone before lawmakers every year for the past 31 years. Yet Pennsylvania remains the only state in the continental United States that refuses to allow municipal police departments to use radar guns to enforce speed limits.

The jobs of municipal police officers — some reduced to painting lines on the road and using stopwatches to clock vehicles — are more dangerous as a result. Our local roads — which often don’t provide sight lines long enough to employ such methods — are more dangerous as a result. And many municipalities — which must foot the bill to repeatedly recalibrate non-radar timing devices in lieu of radar guns — needlessly spend thousands of dollars each year as a result.

Pennsylvania State Police, who have been allowed to use radar guns for decades, say the devices are effective to use and easy to maintain. Meanwhile those opposed to the idea — most prominently the National Motorists Association — continue to claim the effort is just a money-grab, and that speeding isn’t a problem on Pennsylvania’s roads.

Baloney. In 2014 Pennsylvania reported 615 fatal accidents in which speed was a factor — roughly double the national average. Predictably, most of those deaths occurred on local roads where municipal police are barred from using radar guns.

We understand drivers’ tendency, when faced with the notion of tougher speed enforcement on the roads they travel every day, is to worry about their prospects of getting stopped and fined for behavior that heretofore has received a pass.

But consider how ridiculous this situation has become. Your municipal police force can be trusted with the weapons of war — high powered rifles, handguns, and non-lethal devices — every day. But they are barred from using radar guns because of fears they will use the devices irresponsibly?

That simply does not make any sense — and neither does continuing the current prohibition on radar guns at the municipal level. It’s time the police officers that protect our communities every day had the proper equipment to keep our roads safe.