Following up on a number of complaints, the Demopolis Police Department will crack down on golf carts being driven on public roads.

Demopolis police chief Tommie Reese researched the complaints and found that there were no city ordinances that allowed golf carts to be driven on public roads.

“According to the law, they are not allowed to be on the road,” Reese said. “This is from the standpoint of tires, insurance, tags, driver’s license requirements and other equipment violations. There is nothing in the law that gives an exception for them to be on any kind of roadway or street.”

Reese said that golf cart owners need to use trailers to transport their golf carts.

“Our concern here at the police department is for safety of the children,” he said. “If you can’t see them off in the distance, the speed is too slow, and you can’t insure them like a motor vehicle.

“We want to be proactive before something happens and not be reactive. Our concern is for the citizens and for safety.”

Reese said that, on the first offense of a golf cart being driven on a public road, an officer is to follow that cart home and give a warning to the owner. On the next offense, the cart is to be towed to the police department with the owner paying the towing fees.

In an unscientific poll sponsored by The Demopolis Times Web site asking people if they believed that children should be able to drive golf carts in residential neighborhoods, 107 people — 87 percent of the 123 respondents — answered “No.”

Reese added that if the Demopolis City Council were to create an ordinance allowing golf carts on public roads, that he would enforce that law as well, saying the job of the police is to enforce the city’s ordinances as written.