Once again, Mississippi sheriffs are going to the Legislature for the authority to operate radar on county roads.

The issue of allowing sheriffs to operate radar has been a contentious one over the years, with many legislators opposing the move, claiming it is a way for sheriffs to line their pockets with fines acquired by operating “speed traps” to catch unwary residents and tourists and charging them with big fines.

As Sheriff Martin Pace has pointed out, that belief is ancient.

“That dates back to prior to 1970 when sheriff’s offices in Mississippi operated on a fee system. That system has not been in place for over 40 years,” Pace said. “Sheriff’s offices operate on a budget provided by the Board of Supervisors. It doesn’t matter whether we write 100 tickets or none, none of that revenue goes to the sheriff’s office nor to the officers.”

In fact, all traffic fines collected by deputies go into the county’s general fund, where the revenue is divided among all county departments.

And outside of the ancient argument that the sheriffs would get rich from collecting speeding fines, there is no valid argument against sheriffs’ departments operating radar.

As Pace pointed out, the county is responsible for setting the speed limits on its roads, and county law enforcement should be able to enforce those limits. That means using radar.

The radar issue is not one of money, other than the cost of buying the equipment and properly training the deputies in its use. It is a matter of safety. Many county roads across the state are narrow and poorly paved.

In some counties, many roads are still gravel and hazardous to drive on even at the speed limit.

And human nature what it is, there is always the temptation to drive a little faster than the speed limit in an attempt to get where we’re going a bit sooner.

Speeding on any road regardless of how well it’s paved, is dangerous, and as the saying goes, “Speed kills.”

It’s time our legislators became better educated about law enforcement and county government, and the importance of highway safety, whether it’s an interstate highway or a county road, and allow sheriff’s departments to use radar. It might end up saving one of their lives.