DeKalb County Sheriff Portable Scales to be purchased for truck enforcement officers to include mounting and storage systems in squad cars.

The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office will procure four portable scales for truck enforcement officers to enforce overweight trucks on roadways throughout DeKalb County. The enforcement of overweight vehicles will help extend pavement and bridge life by citing violators who drive overweight equipment over structures and roadways. The Illinois State Police no longer proactively enforce overweight violators due to staffing issues and the reassignment of troopers to the Chicago area for traffic enforcement. The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office has two certified truck enforcement officers who currently rely on certified scales to weigh overweight vehicles. Portable scales, which can be stored in the deputy's vehicle, will allow for roadside weighing of these trucks and no longer be reliant on other scales. In the last month, one truck enforcement officer stopped a nearly 60,000-pound overweight vehicle, resulting in an $18000 overweight fine. In addition to portable scales, the Sheriff's Office will procure full sheet printers for squad cars so truck inspection deputies, as well as patrol deputies can print citations as well as in house forms such as tow sheets and bond paperwork in their squad cars. With the inaction of legislation in Illinois, deputies are frequently releasing individuals on the street from an arrest with a court date, not transporting them to jail for processing. A Notice to Appear Form is required for this, and these full sheet printers will allow deputies to print them in their cars. Currently this is not possible, and they have to be handwritten.