It's one thing to be doing 45 in a 35, in a residential or business district. But this is a 4- lane highway, with no businesses of substance, until you get into South Hill. There's a stop light at the top of the hill, so if you hit the light right, you're doing 50 already, then naturally picking up speed downhill. It's always been a known fact that the town derived a large portion of its budget from tickets. But to announce this inititative, and be bold enough to have it published in the paper, is what I find so surprising. But they did say that 95% of the "victims" are from out of area. To the locals, " you have been warned!"
<cite>Woodall said the town is also eliminating one full-time police officer position, which will save the town about $30,000 in yearly salary and benefits.</cite> They ought to hire 30 more police officers at that price, and subcontract them out to larger municipalities, where 30k a year would only cover health and pension benefits.
I am probably older than most that post on this forum. I can remember when speeding tickets were the major source of revenue for small towns on US Highways before the Interstates. Madisonville, Tennessee use to have speed limits of odd numbers like 24. They would stop people from 'up North' for going 25 knowing they would pay the fine instead of appearing in traffic court.
No cop or camera can hide from a good radar detector. I just picked up the Escort 9500ix. Quite pricey but it feels good to know I am one step ahead of the pigs.
I purchased an Escort a few years ago and it paid for itself in a matter of weeks. Here in our city, enforcment is enabling red light cameras to catch people who are speeding through intersections, and taking a picture like red light cameras. This way, they can nail you for a red light ticket and/or a speed on green ticket. It's apparently a great tax and stream of revenue in these slow times!
Agreed! I had an 8500 before and it was flawless. Gave me warnings sometimes two miles in advance on the highway and always at least 3/4 of a mile in the city. Never had a speeding ticket and let me tell you living in Chicago I don't drive 55.
How dare you make such a proposal? Do you realize that what you just said makes perfect sense? That will never fly with the idiots in charge of local govt. Common sense is heavily frowned upon. If I'm not mistaken, there are rules that limit the distance police, fire, ems workers can live from their home offices. They have to be close enough to respond quickly in an emergency. But for the sake of economics, you'd think there would be a way to rotate shifts and such, so that the distance wouldn't be an issue. The other argument would come from inner city residents, accusing the town officials of "outsourcing", much like tech did with India, China. Times, they are a changing. So we'll see how this plays out.
If the police in the cities were allowed to do their job, and actually use common sense, profile, etc, you could probably reduce crime by half, with 50% of the current police force. Reduce the amount of protocols, paperwork, law suits (easier said than done), concentrate on the areas where violent crimes/buglary/etc are typically commited, and profile........you would see a dramtic improvement in crime and reduction in costs.
How about Cops return to REAL Police Work? You know, like prosecuting violent crime - burglary, rape, assault, murder, car theft?? That way, they can do something useful for a change instead of writing parking tickets all day!! Thats just too much to ask from our Boys in Blue!