When 50 St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies fanned out across 25 neighborhoods last Friday in an initiative to halt speeders and stop sign violators, Sheriff Jack Strain hoped the campaign would ultimately change driving behavior.

He was wrong, he said.

With 919 tickets issued, the message of “Operation Safe Streets” was obviously not heard, with speeders still driving carelessly despite warnings to the public of the crackdown, Strain said Wednesday.

From left, an unidentified St. Tammany Parish Sheriff deputy, Capt. Tim Lentz and Sheriff Jack Strain discuss the 919 tickets issued last week as part of crackdown on driving violations. While the effort was '��very effective,'�� it wasn'��t successful, Strain said. The goal was to change driving habits.

To that extent, “we were not successful,” Strain said, surrounded by stacks of tickets during a press conference discussing the results. “But in our failure we were certainly very effective.”

Working with the blessing and cooperation of homeowner’s association leaders, deputies swarmed three districts in eastern, western and northern St. Tammany on March 21.

By day’s end, entire households were cited at separate times, with some ticketed twice, once leaving for work and once returning home, Strain said. Others drove more than 20 mph over the speed limit near children at play. One man, claiming to be an outspoken critic on speeders, “thought he spent so much time complaining about the problem he should be exempt,” Strain said.

Others pulled out lawn chairs and watched from their front yards as the crackdown unfolded.

“We want the public to know this isn’t Bonnie and Clyde or public enemy No. 1 we are after,” Strain said. “This is truly an effort to change driving behavior.”

Of the tickets issued, 253 were issued for speeding, with 51 cited for driving 10 mph over the speed limit, 188 for up to 20 mph over the speed limit and 15 for speeds in excess of 20 mph in residential neighborhoods, according to the ticket breakdown released by Strain. The remaining tickets were issued for no proof of insurance, stop sign and seat belt violations and “other” violations, he said.

About half of the citations came from the Slidell area.

“We are gong to do this again and again. We’re not going to hide this,” said Maj. Donald Sharp of the Sheriff’s Office, who spent seven weeks planning the operation.

More than a dozen homeowner’s association leaders, who showed up at the press conference, nodded their heads, applauding the crackdown.

But Bob Reese, president of the Crestwood Homeowner’s Association on U.S. Highway 190 near Covington, said it’s not only the neighbors who speed.

Over the past several months, Reese has noted school buses and garbage trucks speeding and failing to stop, so much so that one bus grazed a neighbor’s mailbox, forcing it to be replaced, he said.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “They just barrel through there. They pick up their kids and just keep flying.”

Others, such as David J. Lemaire Sr. representing the Indian Village subdivision in eastern St. Tammany, called the crackdown a blessing.

“We have a sheriff that is being proactive,” he said. “Meanwhile, every other place is having press conferences about murder. We’re having a press conference about speeding, which is a quantum leap above the rest of the world. It just shows how good a place St. Tammany is to live.”

And while other homeowners are appreciative, Lemaire is especially thankful, he said. In the past decade, at least two people have died on a sharp curve through his neighborhood, one person just months before Hurricane Katrina, he said.

“It’s a wonder they don’t have more because people just fly around there,” he said. “Who thinks they’re going to get a ticket on a dead end street.”

Apparently not many. With 22 speeding citations issued, Indian Village boasted the second most residents ticketed in eastern St. Tammany behind Eden Isles with 59 speeders.

Strain called those numbers major problems and thanked the public for being patient while his office sorted through Hurricane Katrina issues before focusing on quality of life enforcement.

“We told you then as soon as we could catch our breath we would return to focusing on our quality of life issues,” Strain said, adding later, not just for the interim, but also for the long term.

“This is truly a behavior that must be changed.”

And to see it happen, Strain and deputies are planning another crackdown, this time attacking state highways, too.

“We can’t turn our back on state highways where our people are getting killed,” Sharp said.

“Then if we write 20 tickets, it will be working,” he said.