Salisbury Township has joined a growing number of municipalities in the Lehigh Valley and across the Commonwealth to demand its police officers be allowed to use radar guns.

By a unanimous 5-0 vote, the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners has approved a resolution in support of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Senate Bill 1340 and House Bill 1272, enabling local police forces to use radar.

The language of the resolution states the Senate and House bills would enable "municipal police to use the same motor vehicle speed-timing equipment as the Pennsylvania State Police."

Commissioner Robert Martucci Jr., made the motion, with Commissioner Joanne Ackerman seconding the motion to bring the resolution to a vote at the June 12 commissioners' meeting.

Pennsylvania is the only state in the United States to prohibit local police from using radar guns.

Conventional wisdom among Harrisburg law-makers has been use of radar guns by local police officers would increase the use of "speed traps" as a way of increasing revenue from fines.

Local police officers counter traffic-speed enforcement is not lucrative because it is manpower-intensive, not only in terms of onsite enforcement, but in follow-up regarding court costs for police manpower.

Police in local municipalities maintain radar guns would be most effective to reduce traffic speeds in neighborhoods where it is cumbersome to set up the equipment officers now use.

Local police must use a Visual Average Speed Computer and Recorder, whereby two lines are painted on a street and the speed of a vehicle is calculated on the basis of a car traveling the measured distance between the two lines.

The operation requires more than one officer. A radar gun can be aimed and used by one officer.

Also, VASCAR is said to be ineffective at night and during inclement weather. It is claimed the system also puts police officer safety at risk.

The resolution passed by Salisbury claims "the inability of municipal police to use radar has resulted in uneven en- forcement of the maximum speed laws across Pennsylvania."

The resolution states Pennsylvania has the third highest number of speed-related vehicle fatalities in the U.S., according to a 2012 report by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. According to the report, 47 percent of the speed-related fatalities were on roads where the posted speed limit was 50 miles per hour or less.

Salisbury Township Manager Randy Soriano said copies of the township resolution would be sent to state elected officials, mostly likely including State Senators Patrick M. Browne, R-16th, Lisa Boscola, D-18th, and Bob Mensch, R-24th, and State Representatives Justin Simmons, R-131st, Dan McNeill, D-133rd, and Ryan Mackenzie, R-134th.

This year in the Lehigh Valley, the Whitehall Township and Palmer Township boards of commissioners and Wilson Borough Council passed resolutions supporting the state bills.

Municipal officials across the Commonwealth, including York County; Mt. Lebanon, Allegheny County; and Columbia, Lancaster County, have voted to support the legislation.

The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs and the Pennsylvania State Mayors' Association support the bills.

There was no discussion prior to the June 22 Salisbury vote. The use of radar guns by local police has been discussed previously at township workshops and meetings.

Salisbury Township Chief of Police Allen W. Stiles has advocated the use of radar guns by local police for some 35 years.

"We have to use three or four persons, instead of one person," Stiles said at the May 22 township meeting.

Stiles said use of VASCAR is especially difficult along neighborhood streets.