Posted Thursday, October 8, 2009 --- 9:45 p.m.

If you were on Stoughton Road between the beltline and about 151 Thursday you probably noticed a greater police presence.

That's because the MPD is cracking down on traffic violations in that area and getting some help from Wisconsin State Troopers.

This is one of the first stops of the night along highway 51 or Stoughton Road.

"Your registration plates expired back in January. Is this your car?"

Registration violations, equipment malfunctions...

" That right front headlight's the first thing I noticed about the vehicle."

...and missing plates. These are all things that Madison Police Officers and their new partners, Wisconsin State Troopers, will be looking for out on the road.

" To do an operation of this size we need a larger number of officers. State Patrol seemed like a logical place to start. "

Sergeant Charles Weiss is in charge of the East District Community Policing team.

There are only about six people in his crew and they're responsible for several things including traffic control.

Since they don't have a lot of man power they can't really patrol as much as they'd like.

So for the second time this week they've brought in Wisconsin State Troopers to help out.

Weiss says, " This has been successful so far."

Earlier this week when the initiative launched, with the help of the Troopers, 45 citations and 100 warnings were handed out, there was one OWI arrest and two drug-related arrests.

Weiss says his team couldn't produce numbers like that on their own.

" That would be much higher than what my team could do on its own on a given day."

This is the first time the East District and the State Troopers have teamed up like this. But Weiss hopes it isn't the last.

Once all the numbers are in, Sergeant Weiss told me there will be a review of the program and then they'll decide if it will continue.