It was late last year when Senate Bill 535, a bill that would end Pennsylvania’s ridiculous ban on local police departments using radar guns, advanced out of the chamber by an overwhelming 47-3 vote.

The bill went to a House committee for consideration where it promptly died at the end of the state’s legislative session that November. But it was worthy of our support — and it got it.

This time the bill’s number is different — Senate Bill 251 — but the objective is the same: expand the use of radar to municipal police agencies, which are currently only allowed to use visual and timing-based systems to enforce speed limits. Since the technology was adopted in 1962 only Pennsylvania State Police have been allowed to use radar to enforce speed limits.

This state of affairs is ridiculous. Pennsylvania is the only state in the continental United States that refuses to allow municipal police departments access to radar. And the argument against its use locally — that it will essentially turn local officers into ticket-issuing predators — is outlandish and offensive.

Here are the facts: 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.

Instead local departments are reduced to painting lines on the road and using stopwatches to clock vehicles’ speeds. That’s dangerous for officers and often ineffective, because many roads don’t provide sight lines long enough to make visual clocking workable.

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 they can’t be trusted to use the devices properly?

That simply does not make any sense, and neither does the prohibition on radar guns at the local level.

Notably, SB 251 doesn’t simply give local departments the authority to use the devices. It gives municipal governments the power to pass their own ordinances allowing rade to be used. That’s a sensible step, and would allow residents concerned about this issue to ask questions and give input to the elected officials in their community. It would also give local officials more direct oversight of radar’s use by local police, another check and balance for those still concerned about municipal departments going on a ticket-writing spree.

It’s time the police officers that protect our communities every day have the proper equipment to keep our roads safe. The state Senate should move full-speed-ahead on this measure, and send SB 251 to the House as soon as possible.

—PAR