CENTRAL - A police department that used only have the authority to give warnings to speeders is finally putting the brakes on drivers.

With the help of a state grant and the East Baton Rouge District Attorney's office, Central police officers have new equipment and new authority.

"With us not having a city court, we got with DA Hillar Moore, and we worked out how we could write tickets, send it to the district court and have it adjudicated in district court as opposed to here. So now, we're writing tickets," Chief Doug Browning said.

Since the practice started in March, Central officers have written about 40 tickets a month on average.

But the revenue collected from writing these tickets does not go to the City of Central. Since district court takes the cases, it takes the money.

"The funding goes to the courts, the sheriff's office and to the parish, we get nothing off of these tickets," Cpl. Gordon Hutchinson said.

"Public safety is our portion of it, and if that's the only way we can do it, we'll go to the DA's office," Browing said. "But no, we don't get a nickel out of it."