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It doesn’t take much to stop Houston traffic.

And sometimes, it doesn’t take much to get traffic moving again.

KHOU - TV

A new kind of traffic team will soon hit Houston streets.

“And we need some of the civilians who are properly trained and in uniform to be doing that so that we don’t have to take police officers off the beat,” said Mayor Bill White.

And if it works the way the mayor hopes, Houston traffic will move faster.

Starting this summer, Houston city officials will begin deploying what they call “Mobility Response Teams.”

So if something is blocking traffic on a city street, a team of police officers and public works employees will be ready to hit the streets to get the traffic moving again.

The teams will take their orders out of TranStar where cameras keep watch on city streets.

And they’ll have the power to direct traffic, enforce parking ordinances and hand out forms drivers are supposed to fill out after minor wrecks.

“These are 24 newly created positions. And these people will be trained through the Houston Police Academy on traffic direction and their legal authority and how to expedite the flow of traffic,” said Lt. Jeff Rosenthal with the Houston Police Department.

And people who work on traffic signals will work on the same team as civilian police employees trying to give drivers a green light around traffic hot spots.