2024 Lay Down the Law Champions

Lt. Scott Schnurbusch

Lieutenant Scott Schnurbusch with the Hazelwood Police Department has consistently demonstrated a commitment to embodying safety. He is always ready to respond to any request for assistance and diligently ensures that the perspectives of all involved parties are duly considered. Scott has led numerous initiatives aimed at enhancing speed enforcement within his community, but especially along Interstate 270 in St. Louis County. He persistently advocates for the Show-Me Zero campaign, extending its reach to a broad audience. Additionally, he played a pivotal role in organizing a modestly successful event in the North St. Louis County area. He possesses genuine professional qualities that contribute significantly to the St. Louis Safety Coalition. His dedication can be seen by fostering an appreciation for both the overarching strategy and objectives, alongside meticulous attention to detail.

Schnurbusch recently received a promotion to Lieutenant. Prior to his promotion, he led the Traffic Management team as a Supervisor. The Traffic Management team is dedicated to addressing the traffic concerns related to local streets and residential roadways, focusing on the needs of residents. They provide comprehensive information regarding the various techniques that can be employed in the development of neighborhood traffic plans, alongside the methodologies for evaluating the identified issues. The team implements traffic calming measures, including pedestrian signage at unsignalized crosswalks, the selective application of speed radar, the monitoring of accident-prone areas, and the deployment of directive patrols at problematic locations. Furthermore, the team collaborates with other municipal departments to tackle traffic-related challenges.

Springfield Police Department

The Springfield Missouri Police Department has been conducting high-visibility crosswalk enforcement since the Spring of 2021 in partnership with Springfield's SGF Yields pedestrian safety program. The so called “Yield Checks” are funded through a Hazardous Moving Violation grant and utilize officers on overtime.

At a time where pedestrian fatality crashes have been drastically increasing, crosswalk enforcement has an important role to play. In most communities, drivers do not readily stop for pedestrians in crosswalks and data from Springfield shows that around 50% of pedestrian crashes occur in crosswalks when the pedestrian actually had the right-of-way. The other 50% of people who risked their lives crossing at random places, won't be convinced to go out of their way to use crosswalks - unless there's a safety benefit. You can't address "jaywalking" if people don't feel safe in legal crosswalks. That is why we need to make sure that our crosswalks are safe and respected by drivers.

The Springfield Police Department follows the National Highway Traffic Safety’s Administration’s “Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Operations – How to Guide” when conducting Yield Checks: The high-visibility detail is promoted to the public ahead of time and a “Crosswalk Enforcement Ahead” sign is set out. At the beginning of each enforcement wave, officers will only give out warning flyers, before transitioning to handing out citations with the educational flyers. During that warning phase, citizen advocates are invited to attend the Yield Checks to cheer on drivers that yielded – for positive reinforcement. The program is foremost educational and has broad public support.

As many other departments, Springfield is short on officers, yet the Chief and his Lieutenants have made Yield Checks a priority and the officers have done a great job documenting violations to aid successful prosecution. SPD’s crosswalk enforcement program is and example of proactive “edu-forcement” that makes a measurable difference in the community.