Techdirt reports:
Waldo, FL, a town of 1,000 that stretches along two miles of Highway 301, has the following for speed limits:
A small segment of highway that runs through Waldo requires drivers to speed up and slow down six times: 65 mph becomes 55 mph; 55 becomes 45; then goes back to 55; then back down to 45; to 55 again and eventually, 35 mph.
AAA itself has called out the town for its ridiculous speed limit changes and has even posted a billboard outside the town limits to warn drivers. Now, the state has stepped in to take control of Waldo's traffic enforcement.
The situation simmered for years until this month, when Police Chief Mike Szabo was suspended on 12 August, apparently in response to an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into suspected improprieties in the way officers write tickets.
Mike Szabo, who exited with allegations of demanding officers to write 12 tickets per shift, was replaced by Corporal Kenneth Smith. Smith, however, wasn't a capable replacement.
The officers also leveled allegations at the 26 August meeting against Cpl. Kenneth Smith, who had been picked to fill in for Szabo. The officers complained that Smith had, among other things, mishandled evidence. The city council then suspended Smith.
The town appears to be finally righting years of wrongs, but only because the state is now involved.
Related Stories
AlterNet reports
In spite of being the smallest community in the county, the village of Arlington Heights, [Ohio] had the busiest court in the region--and even the state--thanks to the Arlington Heights police department and their disreputable speed trap.
According to a 2007 report from the [Cincinnati] Enquirer, the overwhelming majority of cases (93%) that pass through court in Arlington Heights are for traffic fines alone.
Despite issuing and collecting a record number of traffic fines, the money from those fines never found its way to the village bank account. The clerk of courts and the deputy clerk of courts, with the help of the ticket-writing cops, enriched themselves to the tune of $260,000 before they were finally caught in October.
[...]Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters [...] called for the dissolution of the village in 2012.
[...]On [January 1, 2016], the Arlington Heights police department was disbanded as a result of their years of revenue collection for criminals.
With the revenue collection arm now [dissolved], the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office will begin patrolling the tiny village.
Previous: 7-Officer Police Force Wrote 11,000 Traffic Tickets Last Year; State Finally Steps In
(Score: 5, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday September 13 2014, @10:27AM
In other words... Where's Waldo?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 14 2014, @12:58AM
> In other words... Where's Waldo?
since you asked, and ultra-literalism is the internet way
http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/29.7989/-82.1652 [openstreetmap.org]
by the looks of things before too long it is going to be swallowed up into a sink hole.
8-)
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday September 14 2014, @01:32AM
When the State of Florida has to step in because you are mismanaging things or are too corrupt, you know things are really bad.
(Score: 3, Funny) by BsAtHome on Saturday September 13 2014, @11:00AM
I guess that the police officers in question (and the administrative forces behind them) also use the same stretch of road. People should line up and test their speed all the time and see how many tickets they should have been writing out to themselves.
(Score: 3) by Kilo110 on Saturday September 13 2014, @12:53PM
Well cops can apparently break the law at leisure and get away with it.
Please see the recent story about the cop killing someone while driving distracted.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @03:22PM
Cops are murdering people and getting away with it and you think you can scare them with speeding tickets? Be careful that officer doesn't mistake your radar gun for a weapon and "fear for his life".
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Saturday September 13 2014, @06:18PM
How can he not mistake it for a weapon? It was the word "gun" right in the label.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @11:04AM
at least if there is a problem with government at the local level, if residents become pissed off enough, they may be able to relocate to a neighboring municipality that isn't as stupid (or they can lobby their local representatives)
its much harder to escape potential problems that may occur after submitting to state or federal authority
if the problem affects folks traveling through, it begs the question whether there was an alternate route
although a lot of drivers are pretty stupid. more investigation into this may reveal why there were varied speed limits (were there school zones?), and if a lot of drivers going through the town are just plain dicks then it makes sense that they would be repeatedly busted for speeding
it seems like there might be more to this story. what i find disturbing is that the end result is that authority that was once in local hands is now in state hands, which doesn't bode well for the town.
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Saturday September 13 2014, @01:14PM
Sorry if it offends your sensibilities, but if they wrote 11,000 tickets in a town with 1,000 residents, the most likely explanation is that they are a ticket trap town. That is, a town that has decided to finance it's operations by writing tickets to people passing through. This used to be more common. Indeed it doesn't bode well for the town, the people will probably want to dissolve it rather than pay the tax bills that will be necessary to fund it legitimately.
I suppose if the county they are in had bothered to do anything about it, perhaps the state wouldn't have had to get involved.
In general, I support government being as local as possible, but it has to be acknowledged that sometimes it goes bad and an intervention is needed.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Saturday September 13 2014, @02:06PM
Down south we call em "ticket towns" and they are all pretty much like this. The worst is a little place in northern AR called Wiener (perfect name as its populated by pricks) where it has less than 700 people but 4 squad cards and a half a dozen cops, all paid for by the fact that the speed limit changes no less than 7 times in under 3 miles, oh and 2 of the signs are next to trees that block them from being seen half the year until you are right on top of it...nice.
If you spend some time traveling across the south it won't take you long to realize that the cops in these small towns exist for only one reason, and that is revenue generation by robbing out of towners with bullshit like this. It doesn't even matter if you follow the speed limits as they'll just hit you with bullshit like phony "rolling stop" tickets, they have a quota and they are hitting their numbers by hook or crook.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @09:13PM
As for your comment about "hitting their numbers by hook or crook," I personally witnessed a cop pull over my father's girlfriend (Who was following me in another vehicle) for "speeding." It was a total fabrication, because he claimed that she went over 25 mph (When in realityl, she stopped at a stop sign for a solid 5 seconds, then drove another 50 feet before he backed out of a driveway and blocked her progress). It was all because he had pissed off my uncle (Who worked there), who retaliated by ensuring that he got some extrajudicial harassment. That all stopped shortly after my father got in the police chief's face and threatened him with media attention (Among other things, all while screaming in front of everyone at the police station). Needless to say, my uncle found a new job not long after that.
Posted as AC for obvious reasons. (Plus I want to mod stuff up in this story)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @09:29PM
> Posted as AC for obvious reasons.
Incoherence?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @11:04PM
you know, you are specific enough that it does not matter if you post AC or not
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 14 2014, @01:08AM
Dad, is that you?
We need more milk.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday September 13 2014, @09:20PM
Are you obligated to speed up between these 7 signs?
Also how can you say that this Wiener is the worst when the AAA, named Waldo and nearby town of Lawtey as the nation’s two worst speed traps?
I don't consider multiple speed reduction signs with progressively lower speeds as you enter town, followed by progressively increasing speeds as you exit the town to be a speed trap. That's just recognition of how people drive, especially trucks.
A speed trap is where it goes from 63 to 30 with no warning. And a cop car parked behind the 30 sign.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @09:34PM
> Also how can you say that this Wiener is the worst when the AAA, named Waldo and nearby town of Lawtey as the nation’s two worst speed traps?
That presumes omniscience on the part of the AAA.
> I don't consider multiple speed reduction signs with progressively lower speeds as you enter town,
> followed by progressively increasing speeds as you exit the town to be a speed trap.
Your authoritarian bias is showing. You are presuming the best case scenario for the police and assuming that hairyfeet is an idiot with no evidence beyond his own words which are internally coherent. That's kinda fucked up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 14 2014, @01:05AM
hey hey hey, relax man
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday September 14 2014, @02:41AM
Do you actually have a driver's license son?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 14 2014, @04:30AM
> Do you actually have a driver's license son?
Do you? Are you do just spend your days doing riding alongs?
(Score: 4, Informative) by evilviper on Saturday September 13 2014, @11:39PM
Yes. Failure to do so is just as much a ticket-able offense as speeding.
"169.15 Impeding traffic.
No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law or except when the vehicle is temporarily unable to maintain a greater speed due to a combination of the weight of the vehicle and the grade of the highway. "
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday September 14 2014, @02:44AM
Um, no.
Not in town.
Nice try tho.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 14 2014, @04:34AM
You are just doubling down on the dumb tonight.
Do you see "upon a highway" in the text of that statute?
No you do not. The statute applies everywhere.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @03:35PM
Having drove thru the 'great town' of waldo, twice. I can say they probably wouldnt notice, it is acres of single wides much like most of north 301. I suspected it was a speed trap with the crazy speed limits. My wife who is ms lead foot was not allowed to drive. "why are you driving so slow" "see that cop and that cop and that cop" "OK I SEE". There are even billboards outside of the town which someone has conveniently planted kudzu next to.
You know it must have been ridiculous when your own force turns you in...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 14 2014, @02:45AM
Gainesville resident here: we're the nearest town (not city) of any magnitude to Waldo, and Lawtey is on the same road, between us and Jacksonville. Hampton isn't far either, and that made CNN for a while [cnn.com], since the state legislature was threatening to dissolve the town for its corruption (speed trap patrolled by cops armed with assault rifles and body armor, mayor in jail on drug charges when the reporters arrived, police owed a six-figure debt to the local convenience store, etc). North Florida (AKA South Georgia) is, frankly, hell, and the locals often don't see a problem with this sort of behavior. Even here in Gainesville the cops run speed traps and even ticket jaywalkers when there's no car on the road (the campus police at UF have handcuffed students to stop signs for jaywalking before, not to mention their SWAT raid on a foreign grad student stricken with polio and barely able to walk -- he ended up with permanent brain damage after they shot him for resisting). Remember "Don't Tase Me Bro?" That was here. The whole region is overrun by thuggish police, and even they can barely keep the locals in check -- the citizenry is even more to be feared than the police. The best thing that could happen to Florida would be for the army (units drawn from somewhere else) to re-occupy everything north of Tampa and Orlando, like they had to up until the civil war. This godforsaken swamp was never properly pacified or civilized, and the law enforcement and the locals are all savages.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Saturday September 13 2014, @06:47PM
if the problem affects folks traveling through, it begs the question whether there was an alternate route
Um, no, it doesn't! [begthequestion.info]
(Brought to you by the International Society for the Preservation of Question Begging)
(Score: 1) by datapharmer on Sunday September 14 2014, @02:27PM
as someone who has travelled through Waldo often, I can assure you that the town is better off in the hands of the state. it is a speed trap and nothing more. if is also one of only a few ways through the center of the state, which is why so many people are getting caught going through there. the speed limits go up and down on a block-by-block basis for no apparent reason and the signs are moved around regularly to confuse even drivers familiar with the area. it is simply a way to raise revenue for the town outside of taxation of locals.
(Score: 5, Informative) by el_oscuro on Saturday September 13 2014, @05:25PM
About 5 years ago, I took a TDY trip to the space coast, and flew into Orlando. They have the perfect out of state ticket trap there. Getting a rental car and taking the highway from Orlando to the coast, I see it is a toll road. There is a sign that says "toll booth ahead 1 mile" along with the usual EZ-pass stuff. Being in a rental, I of course don't have an EZ-pass and I am looking for toll booth. Where is it? Oh, you had to EXIT the highway back there to pay the toll without an EZ-pass. What, you didn't already know that and missed the exit? Too late, ka-ching! They don't even need cops. Just a camera and an automated billing system. They could have just as easily said: "Toll for locals $1, out of town drivers $20".
SoylentNews is Bacon! [nueskes.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @06:54PM
I guess the only option is to stop the car there.
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 13 2014, @09:24PM
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Saturday September 13 2014, @06:12PM
They just baaarely made their quota.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hankwang on Sunday September 14 2014, @03:26PM
I just traversed the town from south to north using Google Street view. It doesn't look so bad to me. Within the city limits, the speed is 55 and in built-up areas with a lot of side roads, it's 45 mph. The 35 mph mentioned in the summary is probably a typo, as in the end it's back to 65 mph. All the signs are clearly visible. Here are the links to Google Street View.
55 mph [google.com]
"Speed strictly enforced" [google.com]
55 mph reminder [google.com]
55 to 45 mph [google.com]
(5 reminders for 45 mph)
45 mph to 55 mph [google.com] (less built-up area)
55 mph to 45 mph [google.com](more built-up again)
(1 reminder)
45 to 55 mph [google.com] (less built-up)
55 to 65 mph [google.com] (Leaving town limits)
Although the speed limits seem pretty reasonable to me, it is of course possible that the way the're enforced is unreasonable. For example, I'd call it unfair to ticket for being between the previous and the new speed limit within 100 m (330 ft) after the change. Making up speeding charges would be even worse.
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