CRANBERRY TWP — State legislators are asking the board of supervisors to once again show support for legislation that would allow municipal police to use the same speed-timing equipment as the state police.

The state General Assembly has prepared two bills, House Bill 71 and Senate Bill 535, which would allow municipal police to use radar.

The Cranberry Township board of supervisors is looking to approve a resolution showing its support for both bills.

According to the draft resolution, this has been a high priority of the board and it has supported the General Assembly’s efforts to allow the use of radar by municipal law enforcement agencies.

Cranberry manager Jerry Andree said the local police deserve to use the same tools as the Pennsylvania State Police.

The draft resolution also states that Pennsylvania is the only state in the U.S. that does not allow its local police departments to use radar.

Jeffrey Schueler, director of public safety, said radar would help with the number one complaint of residents — speeding.

Residents often complain about aggressive driving and speeding in the housing developments. They also complain about speeding on Freedom and Franklin roads.

Schueler said it is difficult to enforce speed in a development, because the officer has to be able to time the driver in a known distance course. The officer still has to sit somewhere where drivers can’t see the car.

By allowing the municipal police to have radar it would give them another tool to help with traffic enforcement, he said. The radar would help the department target the problem areas.

Currently, the department has a method of detecting speed, but it has to be set up along the road and someone has to watch the equipment to make sure it is not damaged, he said. For an officer to do a speedometer clock, they have to follow a car 0.3 of a mile to pace them before a citation can be written.

Schueler said if an officer is running a speed check, getting out on the road to go after a car from a parked position is difficult. The officer must think about whether speeding after a car would cause more of a hazard than the car that is speeding.

The department also has portable units that show a driver’s speed, he said. The department can’t enforce the speed off the reading the units give.

Schueler said it does help educate the public about whether they are really going the posted speed.

Contrary to popular belief, radar-generated speeding tickets do not provide a lot of revenue for the municipality.

The average traffic citation for speeding is $148.50, but a municipality only receives $22.50 of that amount. The rest is kept by the state for state programs.

In the past some of the opposition to municipalities using radar came from the state police, but it has since come on board with the idea, Schueler said.

The board of supervisors will vote to approve the resolution at its meeting on Thursday.