Campo, CO Speedtrap

[Michael Nicolaou]

An interesting read on the home of one of my favorite tornado videos ever. Chasers be aware.

http://gawker.com/one-police-officer-makes-93-percent-of-colorado-towns-b-1701529145

 

[Jason Boggs]

An interesting read on the home of one of my favorite tornado videos ever. Chasers be aware.

http://gawker.com/one-police-officer-makes-93-percent-of-colorado-towns-b-1701529145

I remember traveling through Campo last year while chasing up near Limon. As I was going through town, a cop came up behind me with lights going, and then swerved around me to ticket a trucker that was definitely speeding through town.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

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

 

[Jason Boggs]

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

From what I've seen driving through Estelline, it's not near as bad as it was 2 or 3 years ago.

 

[Warren Faidley]

He also ticketed a tornado a few years ago for obstructing traffic.

 

[Jason Boggs]

He also ticketed a tornado a few years ago for obstructing traffic.

LOL

Yep, I saw that! The cop pat searched the tornado and found a few beer bottles, some barbed wire, and an old shoe. After finding nothing of interest on the ol' tornado, he had to let him go.

 

[Kevin Rimcoski]

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

 

[Jason Boggs]

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

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.

 

[Kevin Rimcoski]

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

 

[David Reimer]

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.

 

[Jesse Risley]

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.

 

[Warren Faidley]

This is not the guy you want to PO with massive chaser convergence.

W.

 

[Todd Rector]

I am visualizing a caravan of chasers blowing through town and him calling the National Guard for assistance taking us all down.

 

[Mark Blue]

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.

 

[Todd Rector]

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.