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Campo, CO Speedtrap

This happens in a lot of towns around tornado alley I would say. Verden, OK seems to solely exist on speeding tickets. Same with Estelline, TX
 
Wow lol. So almost all of the town's revenue is in traffic fines. I'm a little confused how that brings the town money, to pay people...are they paying the same people they're ticketing? If so, I don't understand how there's a profit there
 
Kevin Rimcoski said:
Wow lol. So almost all of the town's revenue is in traffic fines. I'm a little confused how that brings the town money, to pay people...are they paying the same people they're ticketing? If so, I don't understand how there's a profit there
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Hwy 287 is a major highway through Campo (SE CO), so the profit comes from ticketing all the speeders that are going from TX/NM/OK to CO and vise versa.
 
I also like how he wrote 400 tickets and there's only 107 people in the town

I find traffic cops pretty useless for the most part. They're tax collectors most of the time. The public safety thing sounds like an excuse to me
I understand there's a time and place for everything, but as far as some officers take it can be ridiculous at times...if anyone gets where I'm trying to get at

On the other hand, it sounds like this guy is just sick of his own people. I mean the mayor himself and sons siphoning gas? Really? If I was in his situation and found the one person that high in politics (high for a town) and his son's one of which was also a cop, I'd be pretty peeved too
 
Don't want to pay the fine don't go speeding through towns. It's not a surprise that speed limits go down to 25-35 MPH in most towns. That town just so happens to have a major highway going through it - not a bad way to make income.
 
I generally abhor speed traps, and their legality is questionable, but I'm not sure if this qualifies. If the speed limit drops that drastically and there is absolutely no warning, and he is writing people automatically when they enter the restricted speed zone without the ability to reduce their speed, then yeah, it's a legitimate speed trap and shouldn't even be legal. However, he even said he allows 10 mph over the posted limit before citing, and that's far more generous than most small town LEOs around here, so if you are given time to adjust to a reasonable speed (e.g., reduced speed ahead to 35 mph signage or whatever) and you're flying through Campo doing 10+ mph over the posted limit, I don't have a lot of sympathy for your receiving a coupon for $100 off of your next paycheck.
 
I am visualizing a caravan of chasers blowing through town and him calling the National Guard for assistance taking us all down.
 
This reminds me of how much I need a new radar detector. I like the Escort Redline quite a bit, but the price is pretty steep. It doesn't prevent a ticket if they use lidar, but it works well in most other situations.
 
This is kinda why I smile a little whenever I am rolling along at an already decent clip and some pickup truck with 6 antennas and a vinyl wrap passes me like I am standing still. I figure he buys me a good 10-15 miles worth of safety net by being the one who gets pulled over instead of me.
 
David Reimer said:
Don't want to pay the fine don't go speeding through towns. It's not a surprise that speed limits go down to 25-35 MPH in most towns. That town just so happens to have a major highway going through it - not a bad way to make income.
Click to expand...
Absolutely true. What o was trying to get at was entrapment. There's a bit of that here as well. I've seen a few officers sit out and tag a couple cars, and radio ahead to a few motorcycle cops up ahead

But unless there's no sign or any warning in Campo, I doubt this is the case.

This was a good read
 
I am positive nobody on this thread advocates speeding through towns, but I am equally certain we have all felt the frustration of zig-zagging northeast, trying to stay in position on a fast-moving cell when we encounter a tiny 25mph city every five miles (looking at YOU, southwest Iowa).
 
Kevin Rimcoski said:
I find traffic cops pretty useless for the most part. They're tax collectors most of the time.
Click to expand...

And why do you find them useless? I hate comments like this directed at those who would be the first to come to your aid when called upon by you. They have a job to do, and traffic enforcement happens to be part of that job. I'm sure whatever job you have, I can find something about it that to me I find to be pretty useless. It's really simple, don't like being issued a speeding ticket? Then don't speed! Problem solved, no worries. Speeding is breaking the law, period. If you speed, get caught then there are consequences as a result of YOUR poor and irresponsible choices that resulted in you speeding to begin with.

I've been caught speeding, I've gotten tickets and I sucked it up like a man because it was because of MY actions that lead to that. I didn't blame the cops, I didn't call what they do useless. I sucked it up.

Sorry if my post seems a bit rude, but I hate seeing our law enforcement painted in a negative spotlight and being called useless when all they're doing is their job which is to enforce laws that you should abide by.
 
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Joey Ketcham said:
And why do you find them useless? I hate comments like this directed at those who would be the first to come to your aid when called upon bu you. They have a job to do, and traffic enforcement happens to be part of that job. I'm sure whatever job you have, I can find something about it that to me I find to be pretty useless. It's really simple, don't like being issued a speeding ticket? Then don't speed! Problem solved, no worries. Speeding is breaking the law, period. If you speed, get caught then there are consequences as a result of YOUR poor and irresponsible choices that resulted in you speeding to begin with.

I've been caught speeding, I've gotten tickets and I sucked it up like a man because it was because of MY actions that lead to that. I didn't blame the cops, I didn't call what they do useless. I sucked it up.

Sorry if my post seems a bit rude, but I hate seeing our law enforcement painted in a negative spotlight and being called useless when all they're doing is their job which is to enforce laws that you should abide by.
Click to expand...
No not rude at all. I like to keep an open mind on any matters. I like hearing the other side and what others have to say

I agree with you. I've had my share of speeding tickets as well. But that's not all a traffic cops gives out as citations. My more recent ticket was because my license hasn't been updated to an arizona one yet and that was a good 200 dollar fine...but I have a valid license and only got pulled over because my license plate wasn't properly attached according to him (it was a dealer plate and a screw was missing so it was hanging on one screw uneven making it difficult for him to read the plate)
There's some places where they can be a bit extreme. But it's only my opinion
 
Some people want a cop to do their job when it's in their favor, but when it's not, they cry and complain..."Why does the cop stop me for such and such when there are real criminals for them to catch." I've heard it a million times.
 
We both have Jason.

Speeding, street racing, aggressive driving is all one thing, it's a whole other for minor things

A lot of bad has happened though with people "just following orders" as well, but that'll lead this way off track.

Maybe I'm also still bitter from when I was I guess you could say victim of that style of driving, and mind you it happened twice within a 5 mile stretch of road directly in front of a cop. Even with me laying on my horn trying to make a scene absolutely nothing happened, yet I get pulled over a few weeks later in the same route just because one motorcycle cop couldn't read all the numbers in my dealership plate
 
Another example: I own a 1978 Porsche 928. It's a classic-year vehicle and considerably rare. I have a personalized Iowa plate "928 V8", on the rear, but have a custom-made German plate (also "928 V8", matching my Iowa rear plate) on the front because it not only looks authentic/cool, but also because American plates don't fit the front license brackets and make my car look "buck toothed".

I thought "Authentic, cool, and it's the actual plate number of my Iowa registration, so what could be the problem, right?"...

I had a State trooper actually turn around on the highway, follow me home, and gave me a ticket in my own driveway for improper plates.

Was I wrong? Apparently according to Code of Iowa section 321 I was. Yet 12 years later I still think the trooper was a petty A-hole.
 
Wow he followed you home? That sounds odd

In CT, they had checkpoints for things like that. Any pointless car related thing like that.
Lol, my best friends mom got a ticket for no front license plate. I'm sorry but who is that endangering?
I can see the tint laws, but some of these that they'll get you for are ridiculous and pointless.
 
I was only two miles from my house when he spotted me, so maybe saying he followed me home was a little extreme (not that it didn't happen) but seriously... of all the things to nit-pick about...
 
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