Speed Trap Towns

[Down South]

Thoughts about towns/cities that make a large portion of their revenue from the motorist who pass through their boundaries came to my mind after reading and posting in another thread about radar detectors.

I travel a good bit relating to my job or just needing to get too to one place from the other.
My routes take me down toll roads, freeways, interstate highways and rural roads.
I have come to despise what I call speed trap towns. Most are easy to spot and all have a reputation of being tough on anyone that can be issued a citation for anything.

Sure signs of a speed trap town include the grass in the medium if there is one being full of tire tracks where patrol units have cut across from one lane of traffic to the other to stop their offenders/victims. Four brand new patrol cars, nice ones in a one horse town. Seeing someone pulled over on both sides of town at the same time, lights a flashing.
Do not misinterpret my intentions. I understand that that there are a number of motorist that deserve citations.


I've had encounters with a few of these types of towns in my past and it's pretty much the same deal with the ones I've had experience with or heard about.
They write you a citation for whatever minor offense that you just committed and you are encouraged to go straight over to city hall or the courthouse and pay the fine now, preferably in cash and the ticket will not go on your record. Makes sense to me. I don't want my insurance company knowing I just got a speeding ticket.
It leaves you with a bad feeling in your stomach that you just got robbed by someone wearing a badge and there is not a damn thing you can do about it.
It makes sense to the offending agency too. You get ticket for $160 for doing 5 mph over the limit, you go pay, the agency puts both copies of the ticket in file 13 and since it's not going on your record, No record of the ticket exists after payment.
Neat huh.

I remember the last speed trap town ticket I got. It was long ago, maybe 20 yrs. I knew the town and it's reputation but I had to drive through it to get to my camp on the river. When my oldest grandson was in grade school, we were heading to the camp for a couple days of fishing. He and I were ratchet jawing and I knew a route that avoided much of the city limits and that was my usual route. But as speed trap towns, they are good at scrambling up the speed limit through short sections of road. This particular road went from 55 to 45 to 35 to 25. The 25 mph section only lasted for a couple hundred yards. Well, I missed the first 25 sign and the blue lights came on. My grandson asked, paw paw, what did we do wrong as I was being pulled over.
A young black female officer requested to see my license and informed me I was going a few mph over the limit.
I pleaded that it was an honest mistake but that was a no go so I questioned why? The young officer was polite to inform me that all their officers "HAD TO" issue a citation if they pulled someone over or else. I thought, Wow.
Of course, she informed me that I could go directly to city hall, pay the ticket in cash or check and it would not go on my record which I promptly did.
Less than two years went by and the headlines were about the FBI raiding the police station, confiscating the computers, the mayor going to jail and several of the police officers.
kinda left a warm fuzzy feeling, you know what I mean?
The next time I went through that town, I saw some new faces riding around in those shinny patrol cars.

The towns that I classify as speed traps are a disgrace to the men and women who wear a badge and carry out their duties in fairness and in good judgement.

Not long ago, the wife and I were headed from our place in Louisiana back to our little place in Texas. I usually travel with a radar detector as a tool to help me keep within the boundaries set by the governing authorities. If it beeps, I check my speed which is usually good but not always. I may be distracted and be over by a few mph.
Anyway, the wife and I were just about midway in a small town we were traveling through, I had swapped vehicles and left the radar detector in my truck.
As we were riding through the town jabbering away to each other, the blue lights came on.
I pull over and the officer approached and asked the age old question, do you know why I pulled you over? I said the only thing I can think of is I may have been speeding a bit since the wife and I were not paying as close of attention as we should. The officer asks for my license which I give him along with my CCW, "Law in La".
he goes back to his patrol car for a few minutes, checking my record I'm sure. He comes back, says, Mr W, you need to slow down a bit on this section here, I know exactly where you got over the limit. The limit dropped just back there pointing his finger.
He gives my license back to me and says have a good day.
I may never see that officer again in my life but he caused me to have respect for him and his department.
He could have issued me a citation but believed that I did not need one.

It is my earnest desire that more officers not only in law enforcement but other agencies as well would issue citations when they were needed but not because they can.

[labradigger1]

Worst speedtrap town i have EVER seen, Summersville WVa, you will receive a ticket for +1 mph over. Stupid speedtraps

[opos]

Be careful in Arizona as you cross under freeway overpasses....the Kodak man is often taking pics and the ticket comes in the mail...

[starmac]

LOL I got a ticket in Rogers Tx once for one mile over, that was back inthe 70's and the first time I ever dealt with a woman judge. lol Yep I ended up paying it.

I was pulled over in Sour Lake Tx, once. I was paying particular attention to my speed as I had just paid a speeding ticket in Lomax that morning. lol When I stopped at the 4 way stop, not really a town in sight, I looked in my mirror as I slowed and there were lights flashing, I pulled as far to the side for him to pass, but he pulled in behind me. lol
I told him I was sure I had done something, but what was he stopping me for. When he said speeding I told him that he could put the ticket book up, because I know for a fact I wasn't speeding. lol His answer was we don't drive 55 in a school zone around here. Yep there was a school a couple miles out of town and I completely spaced it. So I told him write the ticket. lol, after he did he asked how much money I had on me, to which I replied it wasn't any of his business. So then he explained that I had to pay the fine before I could leave town, and asked if I had enough, but didn't know what the judge would charge me. lol When we went to the judge, he did ask the judge to drop some off the fine, because he said I had the best attitude about it that he had ever run across. lol

I was pulled over the other night, and same thing I mentioned I probably did something, but what was it. lol I had went to the dump and was driving a pickup that I hardly ever drive, and my insurance card was expired. I keep it in a baggie with the registration, so when he asked if I had a currant one somewhere else, I told him no That If I had of put it in the pickup, I would have put it there and ditched the other one, but it was insured on the same policy as the rest of my pickups. He didn't even write me a warning, because he said he figured I probably did have insurance and the fine for not having proof was 500 bucks.

There are some good ones to deal with and bad ones to deal with, I don't mind paying if I am breaking the law, but have made them lock me up and feed me when they had an attitude and wrote me up a bogus ticket too.

[brtelec]

There is a town in Louisiana called Golden Meadow. It is on the way down to Grand Isle where there is a lot of great fishing and the ports for the oil industry. They will write you for 1 over. There is another town in Louisiana called Patterson, they have a State trooper that is notorious for sitting where the road comes down a hill from a bridge and the speed limit changes right at the bottom. He will write you for 1 over also.

[JSH]

Two towns local to me that I am on edge and alert when I get into their city limits. I have received tickets in both for speeding all under 5mph over. I have even been pulled over for going to slow in a school zone!
Basehor and Lansing Kansas. I will drive 50 miles out of route if I have too, to avoid going through either. If these guys would spend more time patrolling the city limits rather than parking and waiting for a " victim". The cities would be better off in the long run.

[Blacksmith]

A number of the small towns on the "Eastern Shore" peninsula that contains most of Delaware and parts of Maryland and Virginia derive a large part of their income from speed traps. Be extremely cautious in or near any of the small towns. Some have annexed surrounding farm land just to get a section of major highway inside the town limits. You have been warned.

The National Speed Trap Exchange
http://www.speedtrap.org/

Trapster
https://www.trapster.com/

[starmac]

I don't remember which town it was in Ok, but it was bad enough that some trucker made huge sign out of his 53 foot vans and parked them on private property both sides of town to warn folks.

[Hawkeye45]

When I became the police chief, along with other duties in town the state patrol told me that because of the tolerances of speedometers and radar guns at the time (late 70's) not to write tickets unless they were over 5 MPH over. Did I mention that it was such a small town that I was the pharmacist, fire chief and police chief?. LOL I only gave one ticket in the city limits and that was to the mayors wife. That went over big. The pharmacy and firehouse were destroyed in a tornado a few years back. ( it was Woodward Iowa by the way).

Mr. Ed

[bayjoe]

Elida, NM That guy will give his mother a ticket. Blanca, CO also that guy lives to give tickets

[unclogum bill]

There is a story, doubtful true, but out there anyway, When you mail in your ticket, overpay it by three dollars. The court will issue you a refund and you "DO NOT" cash it. Until you do the paperchain is not complete and they do not send a notice to your insurance. Kind of sits in internet limbo forever. Got caught in one gas station town (Boulder MT.) once . Portly sarge and a trainee were up on the hill gazing down with field glasses. My rolling stop was not good enough and they roped me. Can't have no one blasting through their town. I may have been the only car they saw in an hour. Even the trainee was rolling eyes as the sarge explained truth , justice and the American way.

[daniel lawecki]

Woodville Ohio is a speedtrap town they even have a diner called the Speedtrap. There's a old Black and White police car on the roof from the 50s. Everyone in Northwest Ohio has heard of this place. Speed limit changes three times in about a mile or less.

[starmac]

Elida, NM That guy will give his mother a ticket. Blanca, CO also that guy lives to give tickets

Must have got a cop in Elida during the Clinton every town needs a cop era. Back when I ran that country Elida didn't have a cop.

[dilly]

There was a time when people who forcibly stopped you and forced you to pay money before continuing were called highwaymen. Now they are highway patrolmen.

Couple suburbs of the city I live in are a little like this. Lots of that money probably goes to pay for the planes they fly so they can write more tickets, so that they can afford to keep the pilot and plane to write tickets. (The redundancy is intentional to highlight the circuitous reasoning.)

[waksupi]

The small towns on both sides of me have old patrol cars parked as scarecrows to slow down traffic. They have stuffed dummies in them. People are well enough indoctrinated, that even the locals who know they are fake usually slow down.
And just to keep it interesting, occasionally the real highway patrol will park their car there, and re-educate people when they get too used to the fake.

[starmac]

The small towns on both sides of me have old patrol cars parked as scarecrows to slow down traffic. They have stuffed dummies in them. People are well enough indoctrinated, that even the locals who know they are fake usually slow down.
And just to keep it interesting, occasionally the real highway patrol will park their car there, and re-educate people when they get too used to the fake.

I have noticed this same scenario all over the country, especially so after the federal grant money for small one horse towns went away.

[oneokie]

I don't remember which town it was in Ok, but it was bad enough that some trucker made huge sign out of his 53 foot vans and parked them on private property both sides of town to warn folks.

Sounds like Stringtown. And there is another small town just west of Ft. Smith, AR that shares the title with Stringtown.

[starmac]

Stringtown rings a bell, did they get in hot water over their speedtrap policy a couple years back??

[oneokie]

Stringtown rings a bell, did they get in hot water over their speedtrap policy a couple years back??

They have been in "hot water" several times through the years with their speed trap policy.

It is on US highway 69 if that helps. The other town is on Interstate 44.

[Dale in Louisiana]

Sounds like Stringtown. And there is another small town just west of Ft. Smith, AR that shares the title with Stringtown.

Bonita, Louisiana, astride US 165 between Mer Rouge and the Arkansas line has signs somebody put up on both sides of town that say "Speed Trap Ahead". The signs have lights. Very well done. Somebody went through some trouble installing them. The speed limit though Bonita drops to thirty, they have ONE patrol car, and I imagine that some of the agricultural trucks from the grain elevator north of town have contributed heavily to the city fund.

US 165 has a bunch of great places to drop some cash into the local coffers: Mer Rouge is another. Grayson, Georgetown, Pollock, Ball, Kinder, and Fenton all fit the mold.

Fenton's single patrol unit is a black SUV with the police logo in dark grey. When that' larda** flips the lights on, you'd think that UFOs were landing.

They're clowns, but it ain't funny when they get you for five over on a five-lane highway with a forty MPH speed limit in 'city' limits.

dale in Louisiana