Texting law toothless? Local police say state’s ban difficult to enforce

For nearly a year, Indiana police officers have been able to ticket drivers they caught reading or sending text messages and e-mails.

The problem is, while drivers can’t text, they’re free to use their phones for calls, GPS guidance, to surf the Internet or to play with the countless number of available apps.

And the law that bans texting while driving also bans police from taking and looking through drivers’ phones to confirm whether they were sending messages.

National transportation officials are calling on states to crack down on distracted driving and are calling texting and cellphone use while driving a national epidemic.

Local police say that Indiana’s law is too difficult to enforce.

Even when an officer suspects or sees someone sending texts while driving down State Road 135, they have few ways to prove it. That’s why the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and Greenwood Police Department have issued four texting-while-driving tickets each.

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