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Speed traps should be a crime. To be clear, we’re not talking about pulling people over for going 20 miles over the limit on the highway here. These are simply legalized extortion. These officers and municipalities should be ashamed of themselves. And shame on you fools who say “they are protecting our community.” Are you really being protected by having your officers sitting all day on the side of the road in a new air conditioned patrol car, waiting to pull over someone for going five miles over the speed limit? And this on a stretch of a major road where the speed limit strangely dips by 10MPH for a short stretch? Rock Hill’s “finest” got me once and I’ve refused to do business in the area since. How is THAT helping your community?

I don’t condone reckless driving. Everyone should drive at a “reasonable and prudent speed” - which WAS the law in Harry Truman’s Missouri. This means driving at the speed of traffic - not significantly above OR below it.

And my advice to anyone who gets caught in an obvious speed trap is to fight it! Going to court may or may not reduce your fine, but it will force the officer who wasted your time to waste HIS time in court. Once municipalities realize that these speed traps are COSTING them money rather than making money, they may rethink this sort of thievery.

Kudos to Brian Williams and the Post for doing this story! It’s time that we all stop putting up with this extortion from police departments. Police work really IS a noble job and most people go into it because they want to help people - not to extort money from them. What a shame that some communities see speeding tickets as a source of easy money. And what a waste of resources that could be used to help victims of far more serious crimes. The number one cause of accidents is not speeding, it’s inattentive drivers.

If you get caught in a speed trap - don’t just hire a lawyer to get it reduced to a non-moving violation. Radar and laser technology is not infallible. Do some research. Radar in particular picks up EVERYTHING in the area it’s pointing and registers the largest object - this includes trucks and SUVs moving in the opposite direction. Neither radar or laser can tell the officer that the reading he just got was from your blue Ford. Fight it and maybe municipalities will eventually stop stealing money. In the mean time, simply avoid doing business in these areas and let the business owners know why!

Points to ponder:
1. Research consistently shows ticketing a speeder saves lives. In one study, drivers with one speeding citation in a three-year period had a crash rate 50% higher, on average, than those with no infractions — and the crash rate more than doubled for those who had two or more tickets, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute, industry-sponsored research groups.
2. How many traffic stops for speeding end up catching drunk drivers? Drug dealers? Suspended license? Stolen car? Outstanding warrants?
3. Reducing speed limits saves lives. Often, it isn’t worth “going with the flow.” On a 60 minute long car trip, driving 75 mph will only get you to your destination 15 minutes sooner, but nearly triples your chance of being involved in a fatal accident.
4. What if you killed your spouse or your child because you wanted to arrive 5 minutes sooner and got in a crash? What if another driver was at fault, and they were speeding? Would it change your viewpoint?
5. If you think ticketing speeders is a waste of police officer’s time, would you support camera traps?
6. Transportation engineers use many methods to determine appropriate speed limits: density of traffic, number of exits/intersections, hills or turns, etc. The posted speed limit is typically for optimum conditions (no ice, clear day, low wind speed). The claim that states use speed limits well under the recommendation of engineers is not substantiated.
7. Many motor vehicle crashes are not as much accidents - they are predictable and can be prevented. Referring to motor vehicle crashes as “accidents” contributes to the perception that they cannot be prevented; when, in fact, very few crashes occur because of uncontrollable circumstances.
8. Motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death and disability in the US. The number one contributing factor to most crashes is……drum roll please….SPEEDING.

Grow up and don’t speed. It’s the law and any civilized person respects the law. Stop worry about your pocket book when you get caught and think of the children that might be killed because of some self important jerk speeding with little regard for the law or some kid.

I think that a fairer picture could be drawn if, instead of population, you would look at traffic. Some of those smaller areas sit astride major highways that they police. Are there any statistics based on traffic figures.

While this article makes for good copy, lets talk about the “real” problem. Drivers that running in excess of 79 mph on a highways that are narrow and falling apart (Highway 70). Then lets look at the incompatibility of the various court systems that let repeat offenders get off for a non-moving violation, such as a loud muffler.
Why should the majority of honest safe drivers pay for the few inconsiderate ones. Not to mention the more gas and pollution these people are putting out and the fact that if they cause an accident they will be more apt to come out ok due to the “laws of physics”.
No the is article is mis-directed and blames “Speed Traps” as the problem. Hard to blame a city for getting a little revenue. If people are going to dis-respect the law, then let these cities shot fish in a barrel.
Every year 40,000 people die on America’s highways due to many causes and countless more or injured. Drunk driving, cell phones, texting, and the old fashion; driving too fast for conditions.
Just something to think about. Would you want your son or daughter killed because someone is in a hurry. I say better to get a ticket, than a call from an officer saying your loved one has been killed.

I got an idea. Why don’t we pass a law that requires everyone to have a GPS in their car. Then the data can be sent straight to the police station for the area you were speeding in. It would be great. If you did 1 MPH over the speed limit, the GPS could deduct the money straight from your checking account and put it right in the governments pocket. What if you don’t have a checking account? Then no drivers license, you have to show proof of checking account now too when you get your license. This will be a win/win situation. The police can get their money and all the people who are “afraid” can feel safe because all the big bad speeders will be under wraps. That’s what you want isn’t it? A way to make sure absolutly no one ever speeds, right?

Who in the mob is affiliated with Bella Villa?

I’m surprised that Arnold wasn’t in the top 2. They usually have the majority of their patrol cars sitting on the side of I-55 or on the overpasses running radar. I guess the money that they receive from the red-light cameras aren’t enough!

Just as most of you said already…. just don’t speed. It’s pretty easy to let the lead foot off of the pedal. Arrive Alive!

I have posted this before and I’ll post it again. To any St. Louis City official, have a police officer sit at the corner of Lisette & S. Kingshighway OR Bonita and S. Kingshighway. Have radar and ticket pad ready. Heck, you don’t even NEED a radar gun. Watch the idiots drive by at 50-60MPH, pull them over, write a ticket, and watch the money come in. Enough to remove the city 1% income tax! Ok, that’s a stretch, but I’ve contacted City Hall, Police, and anyone that will listen. Obviously nobody is listening. If you know of anyone I can contact, PLEASE let me know!

Drive Carefully: while you have it correct that these municipalities should be ashamed of themselves believe me they are not! The same little dinky towns and cities pop up every year on every list. I remember going to Waters’ Furniture for the first time some 30 years ago. I called and asked for directions and her instructions were clear: be careful in Curryville! That hasn’t changed. The state made it mandatory that they raise their speed limit but they still just hang out and wait. Bella Villa, ditto. That place has been that way since I was old enough to drive (1962). To think that if they had a major crime in their area they don’t have the forces to investigate yet they have revenue from violations of the law. These places just plain suck.

little has changed since I first went as a lawyer (usually the only one including the towns where they actually did not have a City attorney to prosecute)to “Night Court” in most of these towns and villages. Of course there are a few new names over the past 40 plus years but the one I will alwways miss is Times Beach. Speed trap heaven. Used to use their one car on that old stretch of Rte. 66 with a viaduct. It was their major source of revenue. The “rumor” was that the cops were paid out of the fines. Sometimes, it was also rumored, they took it out BEFORE they turned the ticket in by collecting on the roadside.

MOPDs are great…but serve and protect us - don’t hide behind bushes and boost your departments revenue with petty tickets that ruin law-abiding citizen’s days. sheesh. When I see a speed trap I flash oncoming traffic for miles.

Reality Check,

5. I personally think cameras at intersections for speeding and red lights are a violation of our privacy and don’t substantiate the need for a ticket in most instances.

6. This one is complete crap. Engineers design roadways for higher speeds than the posted speed limit. I should know. Engineers like factors of safety. Why do you think that you can go around most corners at a higher rate of speed an have no trouble? Because that roadway was probably designed for a speed 20-30 mph faster than posted.

I bet your one of those people who drive 5-10 mph under the speed limit in the left lane. That’s more dangerous than your typical speeder. Do us speeders a favor and get over.

If you were NOT speeding and got a ticket unfairly then fight it..but if you were in fact speeding 5, 10, 15 over the limit and got caught then accept the ticket like an adult. You broke the law.. no matter how unimportant you may think it is its still the law. Laws like speed limits exist to protect innocent people from morons …. You were speeding, you got caught.. either dont do it again or keep doing it, just stand behind your decision like an adult.

I live in Bella Villa and I am grateful for our police department. Our officers are generally parked in the same various places daily and yet, people race through our neighborhood with total disregard for the speed signs posted everywhere. There are a couple of 4-ways stops on Avenue H that have been there for more than the 20 years I have lived here, and drivers run those stop signs daily because they are usually going faster than the 30 miles allowed, which makes it very unsafe for our children and others who walk along these streets.
Kudos to our police officers who try to keep our little municipality safe.

First of all, I agree that some towns should not write a lot of tickets if they do not have a lot of motorists who are breaking the laws of the road or breaking other types of laws while traveling through these twonships. These types of towns do not have anything going on and no money and come up with stuff to do. Each city is different and has it’s different problems and should be evaluated differently. I reviewed this list of townships and found both types of towns. The ones I have talked about and then there are the ones that are in areas with a lot of problems and the only way to combat these problems is with aggressive proactive traffic enforcement.

You’ll notice all these are pretty much “small” towns or subdivisions. The same ones that go crying to the government that they can’t attract jobs or new development to their area. Who would want to move any type of business to a place that has nothing better to do than ticket folks?

Personally, I think it should be illegal to get more than 10% of revenue from tickets. Anything over 10% should automatically go to the state or to pay down the national debt.

Just get a decent radar detector…….that pretty much takes care of the problem………Im not talking one of the cheapos…..MY GF has one that was really expensive(more than $500) but it picks up all the bandwidths and at a distance of like 2 miles……enough time to slow down and flip the pig the bird……..

The thing I hate about these anti-police blogs is that the people who have the most time to respond in them are the people who don’t have jobs because they were arrested for DWI or other issues.

Face it, every system has it’s flaws. Okay so to the people who are complaining about the cops here is what you should do-DON’T SPEED OR BREAK THE LAW AND THEY WON’T STOP AND WRITE YOU TICKETS!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want to shut down the speed traps all you have to do is obey the law, what a concept!

Picture a world without any police and you wouldn’t even write an article like this or comment negatively in this blog. Either you have a proactive police department and a low crime rate or you don’t. Live in a part of town or city without much of any police to speak of and you would know what I mean, especially if you are a law abiding and God fearing type of person. Cops always get a bad rap because they write tickets and take people to jail. If there was no police people would take the law into their own hands and the policing would be up to you. How long would you and your family last? Or maybe you would rather have a military state like in the other parts of the world so that you could be shot in the street for any reason that their military came up with.

How is this an anti-police blog? It is reporting political policy not police policy. Politicians decide the speed limits and how police use their resources. If that is anti-police then you are sorely misinformed.

I would like to know what my tax dollars are paying for. If you agree with these policies, great. But it is certainly interesting to know that some tiny municipalities have wildly differing policies than others. I don’t know, call me crazy, but isn’t this America, and isn’t our country founded on the open flow of information?

[...] Explore a map of Missouri and find out which municipality issues the most tickets. [...]

So let see if the speed limit is 60 and you get a ticket of for doing 75 i guest that means that its a speed trap. Can’t figure that one out. So I guess they should not enforce the speed limit and let everyone drive as fast as the want. (HINT TRY DRIVING THE SPEED LIMIT AND YOU WONT GET A TICKET DUMMIES!)

To Mary Ellen Capriglione…I am sorry you live in Bella Villa…you could not pay me to live there. And IF your “police officers” were only pulling over the people that violate the law, your “city” would not have the revenue it has to purchase the 5 police cars you have now. It is the people that get pulled over after making that complete stop but your officer didn’t see it because he was snoozing behind the bush he was hiding in. If they are legitimate…go for it BUT look at court night and see how many are not legitimate and how quickly your “prosecutor” is willing to make a deal. You are the number 1 ranked in the state…not something to be proud of. And by the way…go check out your playground with the gang markings on the equipment…you may want your police to spend a little more time on that problem.

My last run in with the Bella Villa police was when I was pulled over for running their million dollar stoplight. The officer who was sitting by the resturant 100 yds away at an angle with no clear view of the light, the painted stop line. I went to the kangaroo court with clear evidence and a mock chart, and the judge found me guilty anyway?? In clear protest, I paid my fine with pennies (legal tender right), the clerk refused to take them. I spoke to her supervisor and they were required to take them. 110.00 worth LOL. I have made it my choice not to patronize any buisness in this burg, and have filed many complaints with the county police and the state’s attorney general about the agressive behavior of this bunch of
Mayberry wantabe’s. I have been pulled over several times and harassed by these clowns, I keep my video camera on during each so called transaction, learned that trick from the St. George incident.
Hopefully the state will rein this kind of abuse and allow the County to take over.

I got nailed today in Pine Lawn. Was going with the flow of traffic, not passing anyone, yet I get pulled over for 70 in a 55. FOr those who say simply not to speed.. that’s all fine and dandy, but if one person is driving 55mph on 70 in that stretch when everyone else is going 70+, you’re going to get yourself and someone else killed.

People slow down and drive the speed limit. Your tax dollars pay for the speed limit signs,so use them. Speed kills. I am a police officer and part of my job along with many other duties is to enforce traffic laws.

This “story” is all well and good and as a police officer, I stongly believe that departments put far too much emphasis on traffic enforcement. That having been said, I agree that some of these towns do it as a source of revenue which stinks.

Now I’ll pose a question to the Post/StLToday. How often do you spend on a story that shows the good side of what police do? How often do you research stories on officers that were nearly killed attempting to catch an armed robber, burglar or car thief. How often do you (members of the media) even show up at a police award ceremony?

Case in point - every month or two St. Louis County PD sends to all media outlets a press release notifying them that an officer(s) is scheduled to be presented a major award. How often is a word mentioned on the news? Seldomly.

The public deserves to hear stories about these ticket towns who can often give police a bad name. However, police are commiting incredible acts of bravery all the time and the public rarely hears anything about it. But at least they know where not to speed.

Keeping up with the flow of traffic is by far the safest speed to travel and I believe statistics will prove that. I believe all police departs should provide mutual aid like the fire departments. Let these small departments send their officers to areas of the city and county where real crime like murders, robbery, car jackings,and etc. are happening on a regular basis. See if these boys in blue can really earn their tax payers dollars by reducing real crime or if they are make believe police good only to raise revenue. The problem is fighting real crime doesn’t pay as well.

Rock Hill has one motorcycle cop whose primary duty is simply to bring in revenue. Of course Rock Hill will say we do this to keep our streets safe and it’s a point that’s hard to argue till you see the revenue figures. Consider Rock Hill as a case in point–5099 citations at a minimal $100.00 per pop = $509900.00. That’s a pretty good haul for a town the size of Rock Hill. Therefore they will not cease and desist from their own form of wealth redistribution. Almost reminds me of a former country with the letters USSR.

These studies are useless because it goes by per capita not by true amout of tickets written overall…
Ballwin is the worst overall sitting at every stop sign waiting for the next non full stopper or non threat speeder…

Ive seen these SPEED TRAPS all over the Country and Im not talking about your Local cop, these are spots where the Road signs are missing, the Speed Limits signs reduce the speed drastically and the Cop is right there, your going downhill and at the bottom of the hill sits John Law, They look for out of state, Older folks, younger folks, cars with suspicious folks, and then they INSPECT you for Public Saftey. Harrassment comes in many forms and the Saftey Roadside Inspections just kill me. Ive driven a truck, Semi truck for 14 years, I have 7 safety Citations for safe driver of the year, I have cheap insurnace because Ive never had a ticket, I drive the speed limit most of the time, yes I have a radar detector and a CB both which help me find and detect these officers who lie in these spots waiting to get that ticket quota. Its time we the people said we do not want these things happening anymore, How you write your elected officials and tell them your a voter, and your not voting for any official that condones this harrassment and it is harrassment. Now there are plenty of ignorant people who deserve all the tickets they can get because they speed and swerve and drive while putting on makeup, drinking coffee, reading, texting and playing with the stereo. But Leave me alone, Im trying to feed my family pay my taxes and be a self sufficient human. Speed Traps need to be done away with, But they wont because now the revenue these small countys earn is the only way Johnny Law pays his salary, when you see that brand new squad car in the two horse town you better drive the exact speed limit.

It Hurts tourism, it hurts business and its not legal, catch the real speeders and scofflaws and leave the rest of us alone.

Word to the wise…Read your citations before you sign them. Some cops try to slap you with an extra citation for not wearing a seatbelt, even when you’re buckled. Happened to me once, and had to get it dropped in court.

Drivers aren’t the only ones breaking the law.

Sometimes officers do not have alot to do, soo, they give out tickets. For instance, here in Wildwood where being a police officer is like a mini vacation, I have seen officers here giveing out tickets on school property for minor parking violations while yelling and screaming at others. There should be a rotation were officers could be shifted to a busy areas like, North County, City of St. Louis, University City where they can busy theirselves with just trying to survive the tour. Nothing worse than a bored cop.