BELMONT, Miss. (WTVA) -- Amanda Null patrols the streets daily as a Belmont police officer.
Every morning, she monitors school traffic, but that's just about a far as it goes. She does not have radar to issue a ticket for speeding.
"I'm over there every morning. Usually, you can even go as far as turn your blue lights on to slow people down, and usually, you don't even see them brake," Null said.
Belmont Police Chief Donald Reno asked the Board of Aldermen to consider radar previously without success.
He said radar is a law enforcement tool.
"We have rape kits to do rape, drug kits to do druggies, fingerprint kits to do fingerprinting, but yet we're still responsible for all the traffic violations, and we have nothing to do that with," Chief Reno said.
The Board of Aldermen has voted to place this issue on the ballot.
The next city election is June 4.
Chief Reno said voters need to be reminded of the four fatalities Belmont had in 2010. There were 121 accidents.
In 2011, there was one fatality and 113 accidents reported.
But will those numbers convince enough people to approve using radar?
"I think it will be fine if it's done fair. I don't see anything wrong with it," Teresa Bennett said.
"I think it could be a good thing considering some of these kids speed around here, but then again, if the cops won't use their power for the right thing....," Joshua Brewer said.
"It's so short and narrow here. I don't see them speeding at all, but if they do, they get them," Jeremy Borden said.
"There's too many that speed and can get away....When they have the radar, they can catch them then," Nancy Garrison said.
"The business people in Belmont do not need one customer run out of here because of radar. The police force we have now can handle this without radar," Jim Byram said.
Should radar be approved by voters, the chief believes the complaints and the traffic will slow down after a period time.
