There is a town i drive through to go to work every day that is a speed trap. My wife was wrongly ticketed, The cop said she was going 65 when she was not. He would not give her a speeding ticket, she pleaded with him "If i was speeding give me a speeding ticket" He would not, instead he gave her an "inatentive driving " ticket. A city ordinance that is not a state law therefore the city keeps ALL the fine revenue, none goes to the state or county. A friend of mine got in the same situation and got the same ticket. He called the prosecuting attorney to file a complaint. The P.A. said "Look, everybody knows that town is a speed trap, but there is not much anybody can do about it and I can't do anything or tell you anything because there is a chance I may have to prosecute you one day" BULLSHIT! There is something I can do about it! There is a big difference between writing tickets in the interest of public safety and writing tickets to create revenue.  I've been stopped 3 times driving through this town in the last six months, The first was for a DIM headlight! DIM! AND not having a rear bumper on my truck! They sell NEW trucks without bumpers! WTF?, The second was for going 5 mph over the speed limit in a transition from 55mph to 45mph, I was not speeding he lied to my face, The third time he was on the side of the road facing the opposite direction i was going (50mph by the way) he picked me out of four cars (i was third in the line) and said he stopped me because he couldn't see the month number on my tags BULLSHIT! He could see that while facing the opposite direction?! It doesnt matter anyway, In Arkansas when you renew tags you dont get a new month sticker, only a year sticker, thats the one that matters. I argued and he "gave me a break" and let me go without ticket all three times. give me a break my ass, he stopped me because of the truck I drive, tinted windows, nice wheels, big cowl induction hood, etc. I'm guessing they think someone over 30 who drives a vehicle like that surely has somthing to hide. I dont know but i'm tired of the harrasment, I'm going on a letter writing campain, I am going to print out a shit load of letters addressed to the P.A. and the state Rep. for this area and the local papers. I am going to try to get in touch with the reporter who wrote the article at the end of this post and see if he will help me. I will use the F.O.I. act if i have to to get the financial information from the extorsion artists to prove my point. There are about 800 employees at my work and if i could get half of them to send letters It may not end the speed trap but It would definatly put some Heat on the officials in this town. I'm sick and fucking tired of this extortion scam I have to drive through everyday!


ARKANSAS LAW

<center><table width=85% border=0><tr><td width=100% class=textBody><hr height=1px color=black noshade>  12-8-401. Title.
This subchapter may be known as and cited as the "Arkansas Speed Trap Law".  
History. Acts 1995, No. 855, § 1.

12-8-402. Definitions.
As used in this subchapter:  
   (1)  "Abusing police power" means the exercise of police power to enforce criminal and traffic laws for the principal purpose of raising revenue for the municipality and not for the purpose of public safety and welfare;  
(2)  "Affected highway" means any highway which is part of the state highway system; and  
(3)  "Affected municipality" means any city of the second class or incorporated town through which passes an affected highway.  
History. Acts 1995, No. 855, § 2; 1997, No. 211, § 1.

12-8-403. Inquiry to determine abuse.
(a)(1)  Upon the request of the prosecuting attorney of any judicial district in which an affected municipality is located, the Director of the Department of Arkansas State Police is authorized to investigate and determine whether any municipality is abusing police power.  
   (2)(A)  The investigation shall require the affected municipality to submit a certified record of all fines, costs, citations, municipal expenditures, and percentage of citations that are written for ten miles per hour (10 m.p.h.) or less than the posted speed.  
(B)  The records may be over a reasonable period of time as requested by the Department of Arkansas State Police, but in no event shall there be less than ninety (90) days worth of documentation.  
(C)(i)  The affected municipality shall submit requested records within thirty (30) days, unless an extension for submission is approved, and shall cooperate with all other aspects of the investigation.  
(ii)  Failure to comply with any requirement of this section shall result in automatic sanctions.  
(b)  It shall be presumed that the affected municipality is abusing police power upon a finding that:  
(1)  The amount of revenue produced by fines and costs from traffic offenses that are misdemeanors or violations of state law or local ordinance for which citations are written by the police department of the affected municipality occurring on the affected highways exceeds thirty percent (30%) of the affected municipality's total expenditures, less capital expenditures and debt service, in the preceding year; or  
(2)  More than fifty percent (50%) of the summons written for the traffic offense of speeding that is a misdemeanor or a violation of state law or local ordinance in the affected municipality are written for speed limit violations that are ten miles per hour (10 m.p.h.) or less than the posted limit.  
History. Acts 1995, No. 855, § 3; 1997, No. 842, § 1; 2001, No. 1425, § 1.

12-8-404. Sanctions.
(a)(1)  Upon the completion of an inquiry, the Director of the Department of Arkansas State Police shall forward all information to the prosecuting attorney of the affected municipality, who will make the determination as to whether the municipality has abused its police power.  
   (2)  The prosecuting attorney shall have the power to issue the following sanctions:  
(A)  Order that a municipality abusing police power cease patrolling any or all affected highways; or  
(B)  Order that all or any part of future fines and court costs received from traffic law violations or misdemeanor cases where the location of the offense is an affected highway be paid over to a county fund for the maintenance and operation of the public schools located in the county in which the municipality is located.  
(b)  Any violation of the sanction ordered under subdivision (a)(2)(A) of this section by any police officer shall constitute a Class A misdemeanor for each citation or summons issued or misdemeanor arrest made in violation of the director's order.  
History. Acts 1995, No. 855, §§ 4, 5; 1997, No. 842, § 2; 2001, No. 1425, § 2n


An example of the politics in this region, the town I'm talking about is within about 20 miles from the example below, this is a very poor area of the state with small populations
From the Memphis Flyer
<center><table width=85% border=0><tr><td width=100% class=textBody><hr height=1px color=black noshade>Gilmore Justice
by Bruce VanWyngardenBruce's website
I've written a lot of objective news stories in my life. This isn't one of them. This story is personal, my $200 worth of payback to a speed-trap scam.
A year and a half ago, I was driving east along Highway 14, a flat two-lane blacktop near the city of Marked Tree, Arkansas, when an approaching car began flashing its headlights. As the vehicle neared I realized it was a police car, and as we passed each other the officer waved at me to stop.
I was informed by the officer that he had "scoped" me from his approaching vehicle and that I had been driving 76 mph in a 55 mph zone. Now, I don't drive 76 mph on the interstate, and certainly wasn't going that fast on a two-lane country blacktop. In fact, I had been relaxed, talking with my fishing partner, cruising at around 60 mph at most. Angry, but figuring an argument was futile, I accepted my $100 ticket and continued on to Memphis.
When I called my insurance agent to tell him about my Arkansas speeding ticket, he laughed and said, "Where was it? Marked Tree, Tyronza, or Gilmore?"
As I told my story to friends and acquaintances, I learned that most of them had either personally experienced the speed-trap gauntlet along Highway 63 just north of the I-55 exits, or knew someone who had. And everyone had a Gilmore story. They told me that the town's city budget was based on traffic-ticket income, that the cops had quotas, that they targeted out-of-state drivers, and that they wrote hundreds of tickets a month. I took most of this with a grain of salt, and considered my ticket a learning experience. Until this past July. That's when it became personal.
It was a warm Saturday morning and I was headed to the Norfork River for a solitary fishing weekend. As I exited I-55 and pulled onto Highway 63, I was quite aware of my location and consciously kept my speed at about 58 mph. Within a minute the flashing lights of a police car appeared in my rearview mirror. I was stunned. They were pulling me over for going 58? I said a very, very bad word. Twice. The officer approached my car and said, "Sir, this is a 55 mile-per-hour zone. I had you on the scope at 76 miles per hour."
I ranted. I raged. The cop stayed calm. He almost seemed amused. He finally said, "It won't do you any good to argue with me. If you think my radar is off, you can tell it to the judge. That's why we have court dates. Have a nice day." The ticket was for $105. I resolved that I would go to court and fight the bastards.
My court date was August 22nd at 5 p.m. I got to town at around 4 and decided to look around. It didn't take long. Gilmore itself is visible only as a water tower from Highway 63. The actual town lies behind elevated railroad tracks a few hundred yards from the highway. The city-limits sign declares that Gilmore has a population of 331, which seems highly wishful. I counted 50 or so houses, most of them small and ramshackle. The only other building of note is the tiny one-story, two-room brick edifice that serves as courthouse, library, and fire station.
The small gravel parking lot began to fill with cars, many of them with Tennessee plates. I spoke with one matronly type who looked like she'd just left her bridge game at the University Club. She sat in the front seat of her Catalina and told me she'd been cited for driving 75 mph. "Why, I never drove faster than 65 in my life," she said. I believed her. Another man, a Memphis attorney, said he'd been cited for failing to yield right-of-way when pulling onto Highway 63. "There was nobody coming to yield to," he said. "It's a scam." I believed him.
Inside, it was first come, first served. Sign in, please. Standing room only. Thirty or so folding chairs were roughly lined up in the cramped library. The judge, a portly, bald man in a maroon sport coat, was seated behind a folding table in front of what appeared to be a complete collection of Nancy Drew paperbacks. As the room filled to overflowing, he got up and stepped outside to eat a Snickers bar. Apparently satisfied, the judge, whom I later discovered is a West Memphis attorney named Jan Thomas, returned to his table and called court to order.
"You can plead guilty, not guilty, or nolo contendere," he said in an Arkansas drawl. "If you plead guilty you will be allowed to give a mitigating statement, after which the court will administer your sentence. If you plead not guilty, well, then we'll set a court date, call in the witnesses against you, and we'll just see who wins."
My original plan had been to take the high road, to plead not guilty and hope that the cop who wrote my ticket wouldn't show up. But now it appeared that this was just an interim court appearance of some sort, that if I really wanted to fight the ticket I'd have to get a lawyer and put my word up against the cop's radar. I had little doubt who'd win that battle. So I did what almost everyone did: plead guilty and try to mitigate like hell.
I stood in front of the judge and my bemused fellow offenders and pointed out the utter illogic of my driving 76 mph in an area where I'd gotten a ticket a year before. I told him how I'd gotten only two speeding tickets in my life, both within 10 miles of Gilmore. I told him I simply wasn't driving 76 mph. Period.
He said. "Were you speeding?"
I said, "I was maybe going 58."
He said, "I'll reduce your fine to $50, plus court costs."
Court costs, cleverly enough, were $50. My trip to Gilmore had lowered my ticket a whopping $5. But what really got my goat was that my $100 check did not go to the state of Arkansas, or Crittenden County, or even the city of Gilmore, but to the Gilmore Police Department. Why would such a tiny burg have radar cops out on a state highway that didn't even go through the town? And what recourse does a citizen have when a cop says his radar has you speeding and you weren't? And what's the point of having a court date if you have to plead guilty in order to get a verdict on that date?
Throwing my associate-publisher weight around, I asked Flyer reporter Phil Campbell to look into the situation. What he discovered is a litany of speed-trap stereotypes come true — ticket quotas, absurdly gerrymandered city limits, the targeting of out-of-state drivers, to name a few. Turns out my friends weren't exaggerating after all.



If your breaking the law should get a ticket in many instances , but when you LIE and STEAL from the people who pay your salary by going to work everyday and you constantly harrass those people it's gonna come back on you. Every thing comes full circle. Like it or not, this is the truth
I know there are bunch of cops on here and most are probably hard working straight up people and I dont mean to offend you, The cops I mention are not.

Was this Damascus or Rockport or where?

You can't fight city hall.
but you can bulldoze it!

Quoted: Call AAA While youre at it. Get them on "The list"

The List?

Pull 3 or 4 "American Graffitis"on them and they'll probably smarten up.


Call in the Pharoahs!

Without a lawsuit you're asking for plenty of harrassment and attention from the local gendarme, and with no payoff.

Not saying you shouldn't do it though. I believe strongly in civic duty.

Sit out there with a video camera, then file a rico action against them.

I'm serious about the bulldozer thing. Go get em!

Quoted: You can't fight city hall. but you can bulldoze it! us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040605/capt.copf10206050434.bulldozer_rampage_copf102.jpg

Sounds about the same as Gunter Texas to me, I had a simular experience there recently. They will let you go for court cost which is $110! It's extortion plain and simple. The so called court room was filled with people and not a cop in sight, so much for facing your accuser, the cowardly fat bastard. I have a CDL and couldn't afford getting the ticket on my record and they knew it. I live in a small town that is the same way, Calera Oklahoma, small town justice (JUST US) sucks!

A radar detector might help you somewhat...though admittedly not much.

I competely understand your frustration.  What amazes me is that there are bigoted people like Sparky315 on this board.  He sounds just like someone working in the jurisdiction that is harrasing you.

A few bad apples can spoil the whole bunch.

Spending money on a radar detector makes me an asshole.  Many, many people here are "assholes" by the same criteria...including some police officers.

Sparky315 is a loathsome police officer indeed.  Just wanted to make you aware of the true nature of some of your audience.

Quoted: Quoted: Why?  Do you feel threatened by detectors? Quoted: On a personal note, I do not give warning tickets if I observe a detector in the vehicle. Flame on. Spending money on a radar detector tells me you're an asshole who habitually speeds, and you've probably skated quite a few times due to the detector.  If I get lucky enough to nab you for speed, I'm gonna add every other violation I can find.  I won't make any up, but I won't give you any warnings, either.   Motor vehicle accidents cost lives and millions of dollars every year in property damage, and despite what some of the whiners on this site say, speeding is a significant contributing factor in many crashes.  And no, I'm not gonna quote the stats for you- look them up yourself, I don't have time.

I had a similar experience with the MCSD...

I enter the freeway (US 45 south) going slightly faster than traffic and move to the left lane, where I immediately slow down to match traffic. A few seconds later, I'm being pulled over...

I think 'Oh great, was I speeding'?

Cop gives me a ticket for 'unsafe lane deviation', without telling me what was un-safe about my lane change/freeway entrance.

I go to my court date, they tell me I was cited because I changet lanes & made traffic behind me hit their brakes. Guess what, there was no traffic behind me untill the cop pulled me over! The offer to change it to a parking violation, but I still have to pay $175...

I then go to pre-trial, and I am informed I was stopped because I 'entered at a high rate of speed' and 'slammed on MY brakes' -> translation 'I thought you were speeding, but I couldn't clock you above the limit, so I stopped you for NOT speeding'... No better offer, I plead not guilty...

We'll see about this one, as he does NOT have radar or any thing similar -> I wasn't speeding...

You have several options:

Contact the State Police and the State Attorney General and file a complaint. The state will come in and take over  a town if they are made aware and get enough complaints.

When you go to court, Stipulate an appeal. This will bump it up to District Court and get you to a jury trial. Be prepared to pay a cash appeal bond. The appeal bond is generally the same cost as the fine for the ticket.

Town finances are public record. Find out how much of the towns funding comes from fines.

Contact news media and enlist their help.

If you really want to piss in their cheerios, take up a collection from other people who have been nabbed and rent a billboard outside of town.

"SPEEDTRAP WARNING!  This town tickets citizens for revenue.  TURN BACK OR GO AROUND TOWN."

The town businesses might get a bit upset when motorists avoid town.....  

Mike

There was a town like this in OH (New Rome); it was so famous that Car & Driver had a big article on it.  50 residents and 4 full time cops or some such nonsense.  All the revenue came from bullshit tickets like you mentioned.  I think that eventually the state just shut them down.

Quoted: There was a town like this in OH (New Rome); it was so famous that Car & Driver had a big article on it.  50 residents and 4 full time cops or some such nonsense.  All the revenue came from bullshit tickets like you mentioned.  I think that eventually the state just shut them down.

I drove through New Rome every day for the last 3 years on my way to work.  It's gone now.  What got them was city council corruption and a mayor who ran for the sole purpose of dissolving the town.  There was election fraud (63 votes - out of 40 registered voters).  When the new mayor won, the council refused to meet, to install him as mayor.  There are something like 65 residents, and yet they generated $400,000/year in traffic fines.  The whole village was only about 4 blocks by 3 blocks.  The catch was it straddled US 40, one of the absolute main, main streets of Columbus, OH.  The speed limit went from 45 - 35 - 45 in a 1000 foot area.  So lots of speeding tickets were written.  There was a cop on each side of the road, from morning til night.  Every day but Sunday.+

Check out the link in the above quote... it is a website called newromesuck.com, by a guy who was dragged out of my wife's office, in another city, on an outstanding warrant from New Rome.  I believe he is what got the ball rolling to dissolve the city.  There are some amazing stories in that site of real police harrassment.  

Some years back one of these shows like 20/20 got wind of the cops in Louisiana targeting out of state cars on the highways with bogus tickets.  They set up a car with hidden cameras and had the reporter driving with the cruise control set at exactly 55 mph.  You could see other cars flying past him like he was in reverse.

A cop pulled him over and told him he was speeding.  He tried to explain that he had his cruise set at 55, etc., and the cop cut in with, "Are you calling me a liar??!!" and started threatening him with hauling him in under a list of trumped up charges.



A friend of mine has a Camaro that draws attention (sharp looking car, nitrous, etc.).  Because the car turns heads he is extremely conservative and cautious in his driving.  He was at an intersection where two lanes turned left and a cop was next to him.  When the light changed he casually made the turn, but the cop nailed it and zipped down the road ahead of him, stopped, then flagged my friend over.  He gave a ticket for speeding, claiming he timed the Camaro with Vascar.  At no time did my friend break the speed limit.

In prepping for his court date he did homework into how Vascar works.  He then used that information to explain to the juddge that there was no way that the cop could have clocked him like that and beat the ticket.

It's pathetic how many cops out there who are sworn to uphold the law target innocent citizens.  Sure, I know the vast majority of cops are good, but that doesn't make it easier to handle when you get a bogus ticket.

Yeah, I just got a speeding ticket here.

I knew that the place is a speed trap (harpersville Al) and was slowing down as i entered town. The 4lane has a speed limit of 65, and I had my cruise on 72. by the time Ihit the 55 signs, (speedlimit goes from 65-45-65 in about a mile) i was doing 60, since I knew that the place is notorious as a speed trap. Cop pulled me over for doing 78 in a 65.

I had had my CC on for 4 miles before, and started slowing when the limit changed.

Sounds like the same thing that you all had happen.

Now I gotta figgure out what Im gonna do.

I cant go fight it cause I got classes I cant miss on the court date.

Looks like I'm not the only one who imagined you welding up a bulldozer...

anyway, I hate cops who have nothing better to do than generate revenue. Good luck with your campaign.

Geeez, everybody knows that police officers write tickets as punishment for breaking the law only. The fine officers of that town, or any town for that matter, would never write tickets to generate revenue for the city. They are jus enforcing the law for your protection. Now pay your ticket, take off that silly hood, get some "adult" wheels, lighten the tint on your windows, install a bumper, display your tags properly, put on your seatbelt, and slow down. Have a nice day.

Quoted: You can't fight city hall. but you can bulldoze it! us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040605/capt.copf10206050434.bulldozer_rampage_copf102.jpg

That was PRECISELY my thought.

Quoted: Pull 3 or 4 "American Graffitis"on them and they'll probably smarten up.

That was  a movie. They weakened the bumpers to get the shot they wanted. Don't try it.

Quoted: I competely understand your frustration.  What amazes me is that there are bigoted people like Sparky315 on this board.  He sounds just like someone working in the jurisdiction that is harrasing you. ....Sparky315 is a loathsome police officer indeed.  Just wanted to make you aware of the true nature of some of your audience. Quoted: Spending money on a radar detector tells me you're an asshole who habitually speeds, and you've probably skated quite a few times due to the detector.  If I get lucky enough to nab you for speed, I'm gonna add every other violation I can find.  I won't make any up, but I won't give you any warnings, either.   Motor vehicle accidents cost lives and millions of dollars every year in property damage, and despite what some of the whiners on this site say, speeding is a significant contributing factor in many crashes.  And no, I'm not gonna quote the stats for you- look them up yourself, I don't have time.

Sounds to me like sparky is talking the reality we face every day. That makes him an asshole to you?

Quoted: Geeez, everybody knows that police officers write tickets as punishment for breaking the law only. The fine officers of that town, or any town for that matter, would never write tickets to generate revenue for the city. They are jus enforcing the law for your protection. Now pay your ticket, take off that silly hood, get some "adult" wheels, lighten the tint on your windows, install a bumper, display your tags properly, put on your seatbelt, and slow down. Have a nice day.

And have a nice day.

This thread is worthless without pictures  badge numbers, names, etc., of the officers and judges involved.

Cops are here to "Serve and Protect"  You must be wrong about these fine officers.

Sgtar15

The cop in question is a 25 year old POLICE CHIEF! the local paper had an article about his hiring, it said he JUST graduated the academy, BTW the last chief was fired, the official reason, insubordinate hmmm. He is the only cop in the town.
The town is Dell Arkansas and my campaign has already begun with 2 letters followed by a shit load of signatures addressed to the local Reps. The P.A. is next and then the local and state papers.

Fuck me? No, Fuck them!

Don't forget Hotels, Restaurants, Realtors, nearby Chamber of Commerce’s, the state board of tourism, any business setup for tourists, and even churches.  Make them all aware of the problem.  When it becomes the talk at the local kwanias club you have won. They will clean it up.

Crooked Mayor arrested

I'd like to think I contributed to this crooked bastards arrest but I'm sure LOTS of phone calls were made after what he did here, I hope they dig deep in the towns finances

Dell mayor charged

By LINDA BARRON--Blytheville Courier News
Dell Mayor Kenneth Jackson was cited into court about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday by Arkansas Special Agent Phil Carter, on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful violation of the Arkansas election law.

These charges stem from a letter Jackson wrote on city letterhead and mailed to several Mississippi County residents in favor of Dick Reams during his candidacy for Mississippi County judge earlier this year.

Reams said, "I was aware a letter was mailed in support of my election, but I am sure if there was any law violation it was not intentional."

Jackson, who is scheduled to be in court Sept. 29 in Blytheville, said he thought, along with his town council, that they were trying to best represent the town of Dell.

"I did not know writing the letter was breaking the law," Jackson said. "I would never intentionally break the law, but I know that ignorance is no excuse, but I feel this was politically motivated."

Jackson said he will seek legal advice on the matter and that others who also signed the letter have not been cited.

Take some short nails and throw them by the handfull where these cops usually place their vehicles, especially if it's in the grass.  That'll piss'em off

Also, sign them up for homosexual type services i.e. mailers and such and put their name and the address of the station in the form.  Drive 'em nuts

Take some short nails and throw them by the handfull where these cops usually place their vehicles, especially if it's in the grass. That'll piss'em off

Quoted: Also, sign them up for homosexual type services i.e. mailers and such and put their name and the address of the station in the form.  Drive 'em nuts

That would put me on the same level as them and I'm better than that