REEDSPORT — Drivers for years have called Reedsport a speed trap.

And that’s OK, said Reedsport Police Chief Shawn Essex, if it makes them slow down.

On the busiest days, 6,400 vehicles pass through the northern city limits of Reedsport on U.S. Highway 101. As many as 9,500 pass through the western city limits, and about 6,000 through the eastern limits on Highway 38, according to ODOT traffic statistics from 2007.

That year in downtown, at the intersection of 101 and 20th Street, 12,900 vehicles were recorded in a 24-hour period.

Reedsport is at the confluence of two highways, and hosts many drivers, said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Thompson.

“When they get into town, they tend to keep doing highway speeds,” said Reedsport officer Matt Smart.

So, Reedsport officers are ready.

The department’s 10 officers cited about 155 drivers for speeding in August and 167 in July. It was 116 in June.

According to Reedsport Municipal Court Clerk Jeanne Plagmann, the vast majority of tickets are issued to people exceeding the speed limit.

“I’d say 75 percent,” Plagmann said.

The second most common violation is for unlawful possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.

Reedsport attempted in previous years to slow traffic with an electronic speed sign.

“There are places that catch you off guard,” Essex said. “This is not one of them.”

Many drivers are from out of area, Essex said, and simply may not know that Reedsport’s officers enforce its traffic laws.

Essex said he received a letter from a man on the East Coast that accused the department of picking on out-of-state drivers.

“It’s not just out-of-staters,” he said.

There are two or three officers on shift at any time, Smart said.

Earlier this summer, the city council approved creation of a traffic enforcement officer position. The position will be self-sufficient — funded by revenue from traffic citations, Essex said — and charged with full-time road patrol, enforcing traffic violations and surveying the flow of local traffic for department statistics.

Essex said he does not expect the number of speeding citations to change dramatically with the addition of a traffic cop.

“We expect him to be out there enforcing traffic justly,” Essex said.

The department’s permanent traffic patrol position, when filled, will make police more visible on Reedsport roadways, Essex said.

“Some worry about the ‘speed trap’ moniker,” he said. “Of all the things people (potentially) could be saying about our police department, that is not a bad one.”