Allen police actively targeting speeding on major highways

The Allen Police Department’s new initiative, which designates officers to target and ticket speeders and aggressive drivers on the city’s busiest roadways, is already yielding positive results.

NBC 5 joined officers on patrol Thursday afternoon to observe the operation.

Within minutes of setting up along the 121 Sam Rayburn Tollway, officers Manuel Castro and Andrew Rembert began identifying speeding motorists. Castro pulled over a driver with an Oklahoma license plate who was traveling at 87 miles per hour. When asked why she was exceeding the speed limit by 17 mph, the motorist replied that she urgently needed a bathroom. Castro issued her three citations for speeding, expired insurance, and registration.

“The fastest I’ve seen is about 130 miles per hour,” Castro noted. “We’ve had accidents with people traveling even faster, at 150, 150-plus.”

In 2023, the city of Allen responded to an average of nine traffic crashes per day. While this number hasn’t changed, there is hope that the new enforcement measures will lead to safer streets.

“Since I became police chief on Feb. 1, the number one complaint has been bad driving behavior, especially speeding,” said Allen Police Chief Steve Dye. “We need to improve driving habits and culture in North Texas.”

Dye, who began his law enforcement career in Houston in 1984, cited several reasons for the decline in good driving behavior, including increased cell phone usage.

“With population growth and higher demand for police services, some of our freeways haven’t had the visibility and enforcement they need,” he said.

Upon taking over as chief, Dye secured city approval to launch a program in May aimed at cracking down on speeding and aggressive driving on the city’s major highways: Highway 75 Central Expressway and the northbound lanes of the 121 tollway.

“I’m already getting a lot of positive feedback from our citizens. We’re seeing some improvement in driving behavior,” Dye said.

Dye has partnered with the Collin County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety, which also patrol the region. Since May, the Allen Police Department has made over 500 stops, mostly for speeding. Statistics show a decrease in stops from 327 in May to 182 in early June. Some stops have resulted in arrests.

“We’re seeing vehicles driving over 100 mph that don’t even have a driver’s license,” Dye said.

Dye ensured that the increased enforcement wouldn’t be a financial burden on Allen taxpayers. The department is paying officers overtime using revenue collected from tickets. Each hour of overtime costs less than $100, while each citation carries fines of at least $200.

“Most of the motorists driving poorly on our freeways don’t live in Allen, so I don’t want our taxpayers to fund the enforcement of this bad driving,” Dye said.

The stopping distance increases exponentially with every ten miles over the speed limit, Dye explained.

Minutes after stopping one driver, Castro pulled over another car with an Alabama license plate traveling 92 mph on the 121 tollway. The driver, who was late for work, received a speeding ticket and a warning for not being able to produce insurance immediately.

“We don’t ticket everyone we stop,” Dye said. “We give a lot of warnings. Our goal is to change bad driving behavior to good driving behavior. If a citation is needed to achieve that, so be it.”