Elkton Police Dept. Strives
To Reduce Speeding, Accidents

by Justin Rudolph

Jim Stewart was hired as the city of Elkton, TN’s Chief of Police in June 2005. Mayor Ware and the city council expressed a major concern for the safety of the city’s citizens and all travelers of TN Highway 31. Chief Stewart accepted his current position with a hope to drastically reduce the amount of speeding and the number of collisions inside the Elkton city limits.

Chief Stewart earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Criminal Justice, and he graduated from the state run law enforcement academy in Nashville in February 1997. Stewart began his law enforcement career at the TN Dept. of Corrections and soon moved to the Cornersville Police Dept. He served as a Giles Co. Deputy Sheriff before moving back home to head-up the Elkton Police Dept.

Soon to join his staff were Officer Chris Cook and “unpaid” Reserve Sam Shelby. Officer Cook has received exemplary marks in his roadside demeanor and general conduct befitting an officer of law in his eight years of certified police experience. Sam Shelby serves active duty with the State National Guard full-time and is always willing to serve and protect the citizens of Elkton as well.

Before Stewart wrote his first ticket as the new chief, he conducted a survey of Hwy. 31’s traffic through the city limits. On a standard weekday between the hours of 8 am and 4 pm, 2,000 automobiles running North and South passed through downtown Elkton. An estimated 60% of the traffic buzzed through at speeds of 55 miles per hour in the city’s posted 45 mph zone. With such an incredible amount of traffic infractions occurring daily, the mayor and aldermen agreed to allow Stewart a “buffer zone” from the posted limit signs and where he began writing tickets.

“Consistently for the first year, most of the tickets were written for 65 to 75 mph infractions, but we still have 80 and 90 mile per hour speeders right through the middle of town,” he recalls.

Chief Stewart emphasizes to the everyday traveler he may stop that “to you this is U.S. Highway 31, to the people who live here, this is mainstreet, this is Elkton, this is home.” Stewart explains that the city and state set the speed limit, “we are not a speed trap, and I do not hide anywhere.”

The chief and his staff issued over twice the amount of citations in his first calendar year than had been issued in the previous seventeen years, while letting approximately half of the traffic violators go with a warning. Chief Stewart is not concerned with the revenue from these tickets, “I don’t see dollar signs every time I pull someone over, but I am concerned for the safety and welfare of our residents.”

For the first time since the mid-1970s, the streets of Elkton are patrolled and protected by two officers, and the department hopes to soon have an officer on patrol twenty-four hours a day. With new leadership comes changes, and in this case for the better of the city.