OMG: Wisconsin police rarely ticketing texting drivers

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) -- A nearly year-old state law that bans drivers from sending text messages has been applied sparingly, at best, by police in the Fox Valley and elsewhere in Wisconsin, according to a newspaper review published Sunday.

The Post-Crescent reported its survey of 20 law enforcement agencies in Calumet, Outagamie, Waupaca and Winnebago counties found they have combined to issue just nine such citations.

Of the 20 departments, 15 haven't applied the texting-while driving law at all since it took effect on Dec. 1.

Statewide statistics paint a similar picture. State Patrol Capt. Nick Scorcio says Wisconsin's nearly 400 law enforcement agencies issued citations to only 162 drivers from last December through September.

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The offense ranks 71st in terms of the number of traffic convictions this year.

State Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, who authored the bill that made Wisconsin the 25th state to ban texting while driving, said enforcement figures weren't the right measure of success. He said the law brought attention to the dangers of texting and driving.

"The goal isn't to issue tickets," Barca said. "The goal is to prevent accidents and prevent fatalities."

It might be working. Neenah Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson said he's more frequently seeing drivers pull to the side of the road before sending their texts.

"I do think it has had an impact on driver behavior, but I don't know how to measure that," Wilkinson said.

Police say the scarcity of tickets isn't an indication of how seriously they take the behavior. However, they note that texting while driving is more easily prosecuted through the older inattentive driving law.

"They could be looking at their pictures on the telephone and not sending a text message," New Holstein police officer Robert Baldwin said of the new law. "It's pretty hard to prove."

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)