Deputy Laws took the complaints to Sheriff Bill Reilly and asked for the opportunity to start a traffic unit, but Reilly was a bit reluctant to give permission. He realized the time had come for traffic enforcement, so the Traffic Unit was born. The unit started with one marked patrol car, one Speedalyzer radar gun and Deputy Ron Laws. Laws eventually convinced the sheriff that the old Harley-Davidson should be added, and then a second deputy, Larry V. Erickson, was assigned to the traffic unit. Deputy Erickson ran the radar car and Deputy Laws ran chase on the motorcycle. It didn’t take long before several deputies became qualified on the Speedalyzer and could use it when the Traffic Unit was not working with it.

The first automobile of the sheriff’s office was a 1915 Overland. In the 1920s the sheriff’s office had no traffic unit and essentially no traffic enforcement; however, it did have a motorcycle in its fleet.

In the 1950s when a deputy was commissioned and went out on patrol he was issued a basic traffic citation book but it only took a couple of days on the road to get the message that the Sheriff frowned on

making a habit of working traffic and writing traffic tickets. A few of the young deputies made occasional traffic stops and wrote citations on a quiet shift.