Got a ticket yesterday.  Cop is sitting right on the edge of town clocking people as the speed limit changes from 45 to 60.  He clocked me, by his own words, about 100 feet from the 60MPH sigh, and wrote me up.  61 is a 45 (I looked down to set my cruise on 60 about the time he darted out).  There were THREE officers doing this in the same place yesterday, town is about 4K people.

Now's where it gets interesting.  He wrote me up for "inattentive driving".  I said "But I wasn't driving inattentively" and he said "you weren't paying attention to your speed".  I know it's pointless to argue with an officer, that's what the courts are for, but I do question the "inattentive driving".   I know that is the city's way of keeping the money as opposed to turning it over to the state.

One of my coworkers got hit in the exact same spot less than a week ago for 57 in a 45 (same inattentive driving ticket, she was clocked, according to her, about 50 feet from the 60MPH sign).

They had three of us pulled over at the same time yesterday.  

A while back, I had a stranger run up in my yard asking me to call 911.  He said his girlfriends' father had pulled a gun on him and shot at him.  I called 911 and asked for a unit.  About 20 mins go by, and the girlfriend's father drives by very slowly, and the stranger in my yard hides behind some bushes.  I call 911 again, and tell them that the alleged shooter is now driving the street apparently looking for this guy.  They tell me someone's on the way.  20  more mins go by and still no officer.  I called back a third time and told them that the police station was less than a mile from my house and I could have walked to the station at a leisurely pace in the amount of time it had taken for an officer to respond.  About 5 mins after tha an officer shows up.

I was told the force was "shorthanded", but apparently they can put THREE units out on the highway to run the cash register these days.

Anyhow, question is, Is this "inattentive driving" ticket as opposed to a speeding ticket a loophole for getting around the "no more than 30% of revenue can come from tickets" part of the speed trap law?  I know they do it to keep the money, but just wondering if the money generated from these tickets is considered in the speed trap law.  

Is this in Cash AR?

sounds like damascus

that's what I was thinking.

That's what I was thinkng until he said it's a town of about 4K people. Damascus is about 250.

So if you think a town is pushing the 30% rule please list them in this thread.

Damascus

Menifee

West Fork

Greenbrier

Vilonia





Some worse than others, but I see pretty aggressive speed enforcement right at the edges of town at the speed change in all of those.



 

Don't forget to add Parkin to your list...

And to the OP, yes I believe that you are correct.  Since it wasn't written for speeding, it wouldn't meet the criteria for inclusion in any statistics that could be used to show that the town/county is running a speed trap to generate revenue.

My brother and I were headed to Cabot years back on Hwy5 and the speed dropped from 55 to 45.  I was in my old junker, my brother was in a new truck.  Neither of us noticed the sign or the cops.  They pulled us bother over, him first and me a few minutes behind.  He was given a warning for going 56 in a 45.  I received a ticket for 54 in a 45.

Thanks for letting me share.

They gotta finance the fix for them dumping their turds in the river somehow.

I see Deputy Fife hidey-holein' on the 49 entrance ramp there all the time, but it's ASP.  Towny just seems to cruise back and forth between the signs on 71 and eat donuts.  Seems like they're still drivin K-cars.


ETA:  Don't forget JOHNSON

All of NE Arkansas, the only ones who write actual speeding tickets are state and county

I drive to the Wynne/Forrest City area quite regularly.

What I see in the winter is when you are coming in to Harrisburg from the south it drops from 55 to 45.  The local sits in a black car and backs up to the 45 sign and radars after dark.  He's there almost every night after sunset during the winter.

I don't know if he sits there during the summer or not as I usually come thru between 5 and 6.

I know of a gentleman who was pulled over in Grady for speeding. He was in a company car and told the cop he could get in trouble for speeding, and could he write him a ticket for a different offense.

Well the officer came back to the car with a citation for window peeping.

Ended up having to go to the police station to have it changed back to speeding.

Yeah, but a "speed trap" is what it's called when they use traffic tickets as revenue for the town.  They use municipal ordinances with a small fine (usually less than $50) because those fines go to the city and not the state; the smaller amount makes it more likely that people will just pay it.  Central City (right outside of Ft. Smith) cops used to ask you if you wanted to pay the fine right then when they gave you the ticket.



You know a town is a speed trap town when they have a half a dozen or more full time officers for a town with less than 500 people.



 

This was in Marianna.  The fine isn't small at all; $165 freaking bucks.

When I called to ask how much the fine would be, the woman asked what the citation was for.  I told her that none of the boxes were checked, but that it had a code written down and asked her if that would help.  She replied with "I'm sure it's inattentive driving, which is $165, but it doesn't go on your driving record".  I then gave her the code and she confirmed that it was inattentive driving.

I contacted the mayor of the town, and asked if this was really meeting the "protect and serve" mission of the PD, or if they were just collecting revenue now for the city.  He said that he read my letter to the chief and assured me that this wasn't a speed trap.  I replied and said that NO logical person would call three officers set up at the edge of town and clocking people within feet of the 60MPH sign and then writing every ticket for "inattentive driving" as opposed to speeding anything but a speed trap.  

I have a court date in a couple of weeks.  I was NOT driving inattentively, but I was, by the letter of the law, speeding as I was clocked "about 100 feet from the 60MPH sign" according to the officer.  I'm torn between going to court and arguing that I was not driving inattentively (could they change the charge to speeding then?) or just paying the fine.  My time is worth more than the fine, but then again on the other hand the fact that about 10 people have had the exact same thing happen just really pisses me off.  A coworker got the same ticket for 57 in a 45.  I got clocked doing 61, so I guess if he really wanted to be a jerk that could have been 16 over and/or reckless driving.  I don't like the idea of the police as a revenue generating force instead of public servants.  

Cherry Valley, Earle, and Tyronza are all horrible.  My inlaws said they will pull you over for no reason and write you an inattentive driving ticket.  I asked the mayor if he wanted his town to be known as one of "those" towns that people eventually avoid driving through because of the cash registers the local PD have set up on the highway.

It'll just be rubber-stamped by the municipal court.  Going to court will be a waste of time, plus they'll make you pay court costs.



 

Kinda what I figured.  I guess I'll have to be content with bitching at the mayor about it and telling the other folks who got the same bs to do the same.

I know exactly where you are talking about.  Coming north on the straight away just past the school?  They are sitting there just about any time I go thru.  Another place they sit is in front of the school where the speed limit drops for 45 to 25 for the "school zone".

I actually don't have a problem with them nailing folks in the school zone, but then again I have kids so I want people to slow it down around schools.  The guys sitting out on the gravel road clocking people leaving town as they approach the 60 MPH sign though....that's not law enforcement, that's budget padding.

Came back to mention I got an inattentive driving ticket the first year I lived here (summer of 2000) for spinning tires pulling out of the car wash in my truck. The cop who wrote the ticket had someone else stopped and called another guy to stop me. Almost 10 minutes later when he showed up accusing me of stomping it to show off I told him I got a 400HP small block and if I stomped it with wet tires i'd have been in the ditch and  and you would damn sure know I was showing off. The argument with the cop got pretty heated when he said my truck wasn't wet on the outside or underneath and I my have called him a moron when i said it's almost 100F and I've been sitting here waiting on you for 10 minutes in the sun and do you wash underneath your truck? At that point he other cop got in his car and left. I took it to court and the judge tossed it and charged me $5 for a court fee.

Just to bring this back to the top.....

The cops in this town have continued writing these "inattentive driving" tickets at a furious rate.

Found out that one of the clerks at the courthouse was pocketing the cash payments for the fines, dismissing the charge in the system, and keeping two sets of reciept books to cover it up.

Question now is, what is the likelyhood that the police weren't profit sharing with the clerk?  

I mean, you get

cops suddenly running obvious speed traps on the edge of towns where the speed limit changes.
no speeding tickets issued/ no moving violations that are reported to the state, so no real record of these violations anywhere other than locally
someone stealing cash payments and making the tickets disappear

Rumor around town is the judge told at least one of the cops to back off/ cut it out.  Lot of prominant people around town are complaining, and I've heard the state police have been contacted.

This could get interesting.

+1 on the Parkin police speedtrap! I drive there every night and they pull over commercial and non commercial vehicles all the time. They hope you will just pay the fine and not come back to contest it. My buddy went through that town and got a ticket for passing in a no passing zone. He told the officer he passed before he got to the no passing zone, but he still wrote the ticket. My friend has one of those video recorders on the dash unknown to the officer...Lol.   So he went to court and showed the judge the footage and case was dismissed!! Crooked cops in that town.

It's not just speed traps.   My son found out about a month ago due to a drivers record check he actually had a bench warrant out on him for failure to pay/appear.   It's like pulling teeth to get any info out of him.   He went to court like the Wed before Thanksgiving, I think it was.   The court could not produce any info as to exactly what the warrant was for.   He was charged/fined $300 so he just paid it rather than spending a night in jail.  HE PAID yet they could not explain exactly why?

He thinks it was for a citation he got late 2014 but he said he paid the ticket.   It appears they lost proof of his payment.    I asked could he prove he paid it?   He said no he paid online.   I asked well didn't you get an email verification or something?   Again he just acts like he doesn't care.

What pissed me off here is if this happened the way I think it did the city screwed up big time here which caused a warrant to be issued for me son.   I want to sue the ever loving shit out of them.

Last I heard on this the ASP is investigating the theft.

Cops are still writing "inattentive driving" tickets all over town though.  

Crooks.  Damn revenue generation and nothing else.