By Justin Creech
Staff writer
Thursday, March 1, 2012

Fort Belvoir Police Department saw an increase in speeding violations at the end of 2011 and the problem has persisted in 2012.

From Oct. 1- Dec. 30, 2011, Belvoir police issued nearly 2,000 speeding tickets to drivers on post.

In the month of January 2012 alone, the Belvoir Police issued 509 speeding tickets. If speeding stays at this level, the department would issue more than 1,500 speeding violations tickets in the first quarter of 2012.

“It’s not like we are in an area where we have a lot of transient population moving through that we don’t see,” said Timothy Wolfe, Fort Belvoir Police Department Police Chief. “These folks work here everyday they know what the speed limit is.”

The highest volume of tickets are being written on Gunston Road, Belvoir Road, Pohick Road and 9th Street which have speed limits of 25, 30, 35 and 20 mph.

In some cases, violators have been clocked at 60 mph on these roads.

“We’ve put signs out, but the only things (drivers) seem to understand are the blue lights,” said Wolfe. “I don’t know what it’s going to take to get the populace of Fort Belvoir to understand they need to obey the speed limit.”

Belvoir police officers have been issuing more Central Violation Bureau summons where there is proper signage on post.

A CVB is a summons to appear in Federal Court in Alexandria which usually comes with a hefty fine and adds points on the drivers’ license; a heavy price to pay for not obeying a simple law.

“I have no idea what in the world people are doing,” said Wolfe. “But, we would prefer for people to comply with the speed limit.”

Drivers are telling Belvoir police the reason they are speeding is because the new roads are more open and the drive is more comfortable, so they are not looking for speed signs.

The response from Belvoir police has been pretty simple.

“I tell (drivers) the reason we are out here is because speeds cause accidents,” said Dewitt Parker, Fort Belvoir Police Department Day Shift leader. “If you hit someone going 50-60 mph it’s a pretty bad accident. We are not out here to harass anyone; we are just trying to slow down vehicles so we don’t have any accidents on post.”

Some drivers have responded positively to the message from Belvoir Police and some feel like they are being harassed, according to Parker.

“I guess they are not used to traffic enforcement on post,” Parker said. “They are just kind of shocked that we are out doing this right now.”

The completion of the Base Realignment and Closure Act has factored into the increase in speeding tickets as the roads are clearer and more people are on post everyday.

“(Drivers) come off 7100 and the speed limit is 65 mph. You come on post and you’re not paying attention to what you’re doing you’re going to speed,” said Parker. “The more people you have on post, the more speeding violations you’re going to have.”