Speed Traps in Southeast Idaho

Having lived in a number of large metropolitan areas over the years, I have to say Idaho Falls has far less speed traps than most cities across the country. I can understand the traps around school zones, but other than that, I rarely see a speed trap in this town. At least not nearly as much as I used to see them in other cities I’ve lived in. Also, most IF city officers don’t even have radar installed in their vehicles. (although pretty much all the county and state police do)
I don’t know if the cops in this state have quotas but other states I’ve lived in they definately did because it was like clockwork the same time each month more cops would be out handing out tickets and hiding behind bushes waiting to pull you over. I guess they have to make their money somehow, I just think they certainly go overboard when pulling people over for 5-6 mph over the limit.
So I’ll continue to use my radar detector and even if I do get a ticket, their really quite easy to get out of. I would urge everyone not to ever plead guilty on a speeding ticket or fall for that 3 hour class they try to hand you to get out of receiving points on your license. Thats just another way for them to make money. I’ve beaten over 95% of all my speeding tickets over the past 25 years, some by myself and others by paying an attorney 60 bucks to do it for me. I’d much rather pay an attorney to get the ticket thrown out than pay the fines to the court, and have to take a driving class.

Although the majority of my tickets were handled by an attorney who specifically handles traffic tickets, I have contested a few tickets on my own.
Make sure when you show up to court that you’re dressed professionally, I can’t stress how important this is.
Show up on your court date and plead “not guilty”.. The judge will then set a new court date for you to come in and plead your case. A couple weeks after you’re given a court date, call the clerk of courts and ask for a continuance. They’ll ask why and all you need to tell them is you’ll be out of town or you just realized you can’t make it in that day or whatever. They will always give you a new court date. 9 out of 10 times the officer is not going to take the time out of his day to show up to court for a speeding ticket, which will in turn automatically mean your case will be dismissed. If the officer does happen to show up, all you need to do is claim that you weren’t speeding. Make sure you have a copy of your driving record (hopefully you won’t have any other offenses on it) A judge will always dismiss a speeding case for someone with a clean driving record.
If you don’t have a clean driving record or don’t want to take the time off work to go to court, hire an attorney to do it for you. It’s always going to be cheaper to go this route than plead guilty, pay a fine and go to driving school to get your points removed.
I don’t see many ads for traffic attorney’s in the paper here, but in Florida it was a real big business. I’m sure if you look in the phone book you’ll find some that will represent you at a reasonable rate. The attorney will go to court for you and depending on the traffic offense, will almost always get you off. Sometimes you’ll have to pay court costs, but that’s still less than the actual ticket and the driving school.

what about flashing your lights to warn fellow motorists of an upcoming speedtrap? Do you bother or do you figure its their tough luck and they shouldn’t be speeding anyway?
Personally I always flash my lights to warn other drivers. Although I’ve “heard” it’s illegal to do so in some parts of the country, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone getting pulled over for doing so.

The #1 cause of non natural death in this country is traffic accidents. The #1 factor by far in determining the severity of an accident is speed. If anyone knows or remembers science class Kinetic Energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity squared. Kinetic energy is in layman’s terms how hard a car is going to crash and as you can see by the formula speeds matters exponentially. Part of the police’s job is to save lives. Thus speed enforcement more than anything else has the potential to do this.

Also, the speed limit changes on Rollandet every summer. Most summer days on Rollandet the baseball parks along the road near the park fill up. There are hundreds of kids running around and bad parking issues as people are parked along side the road. Its a matter of common sense to lower the speeding in the summer and then raise it again in the winter when these baseball fields aren’t being used.

Also, CR67’s claim that 9 times out of 10 a cop isn’t going to show up to court is urban legend TV nonsense. My spouse is a cop (you might notice I’m a bit defensive of his job) and he’s said many a time he wishes everyone would go to court. They get paid overtime to show up and thats easy money for a few minutes testimony. He and most cops love going to court simply because they get paid to do so unless the court time falls during their regular shift. Nearly all cops here in Idaho Falls have to work second jobs to make ends meet but court time helps cut down on how much they do so.

Also I’d challenge anyone to cite one, just one, ticket where someone was written for going 2 mph over the speed limit. Hearsay from a friend isn’t proof – send a copy of the ticket to someone here and scan it via PDF for us all to see. Redact the name if you want and leave the charge and where it shows the speed. This is such a ridiculous claim that everyone on here should be suffering from serious eye rolling. My spouse says he can only remember once or twice ever writing a ticket for anything under 10 mph over and that was only because the stop led to something bigger like a drug arrest and he had to write the intitial ticket to justify the stop. He said this is the case with all cops. He says most of the time he doesn’t even look twice at a car until its going at least 10 over because he knows if he pulls the barely over the “barely over” cars he’ll miss several cars going much more over. You can’t catch them all so he’d rather catch the big fish, not the little ones. But what would he know, its just his job.

I have noticed thats all the Shelley cops do is patrol and wait to bust people speeding. Just one reason why I never go there unless I absolutely have to.

Why am I always associated with “pot” references? Thanks Mike!

One other comment I wanted to make.

Once upon a time I did get a few speeding tickets while driving a sports car but I don’t think it was because the cops were targetting my car. I think it was because I was driving a car that went fast and I drove it fast. Thats part, no thats the main reason I had sports car. Sure people speed in regular cars but I think stats would probably show that that those in sports cars tend to speed more and thus logically will get caught more.

- moderated. I hate to do this, but very this is very off topic and an apparent personal attack on another user. -

I have had a few speeding over the years due to the fact I was, um, speeding. With every ticket I have received I was going 15-20 mph over and in the interest of convenience I simply wrote a check for the fine and mailed in.
It has been my experience that Idaho Falls police officers have always been courteous, respectful, and helpful. I wish I could say the same for Idaho State police. I have been pulled over three times on I-15 and without fail I have gotten major attitude from the officer. Perhaps this FOX news excerpt sheds some light:

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho law enforcement officials say they are “mortified” by a slogan chosen by the latest group of state police academy graduates.
The slogan, “Don’t suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it,” was emblazoned on the Dec. 14 graduation programs for 43 officers who completed the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy’s latest course.
PTSD, short for post-traumatic stress disorder, typically afflicts people who have endured civilian violence, military combat and other extremely dislocating experiences.
“That’s not something we encourage or condone,” Jeff Black, director of the police training academy in Meridian, told the Spokesman-Review newspaper this week. “It shouldn’t have been there. It was inappropriate.”
Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney, who attended the event earlier this month, pointed out the slogan to Black about three minutes before the graduation ceremony began, he said.

I get the impression these guys are less about protecting and serving- more about having a badge and a gun.

I feel like this post is similar to the “cell phone” post. I am apparently in the minority here, but I believe in following the law.

1. Radar detectors have a sole purpose of helping you to break the law. If you own one, you scoff at the law and willingly break it if you think you won’t get caught. That bothers me.

2. “Speed traps” are there due to the stationary radar equipment, plus in some places there are complaints of speeding drivers so the officers go out in the hopes of having an impact upon the number of speeding cars in that area.

3. Speed limits are supposed to be for our safety, and the safety of our kids in residential areas. If you don’t like them, petition the city to change them. Change the law legally, don’t ignore the law and then complain when you get caught.

I’ve been driving for more years than some of you have been alive. Yet, I have had a total of 3 tickets (of ANY kind) in my whole life. They all came in a 2 week period of time in 1986, when my car’s speedometer needle had broken and I was driving on the freeway. (I had 5 manual gears and I always knew how fast I was going in town, but once I got into 5th and on the freeway, I couldn’t tell anymore).

I’m trying to be nice on this issue but I surely am disappointed in some of the comments I am reading.

Over the past year (that i know of) there have been extra patrole targeting aggressive drivers in the county, i suppose this is probable true for the city as well. It is a grant and the officers sign up for times to work extra and target aggressive drivers.

In California traffic law, evidence obtained from speed traps (as specifically defined) is not admissible:

The notion of “speed traps” is entirely different in California. Before the advent of radars, lasers and other hi-tech speed detectors, the speed of a vehicle was often determined with the help of aircraft observations by timing the moments when the vehicle passes two specific marks on a highway with known distance between them. This way was declared illegal, and for the purposes of the law the following definition was given in the California vehicle code:

A “speed trap” is … a particular section of a highway measured as to distance and with boundaries marked, designated, or otherwise determined in order that the speed of a vehicle may be calculated by securing the time it takes the vehicle to travel the known distance.

The prohibition of this kind of “speed traps” followed after a series of successful defences that argued inadmissible error margin in human timing.

Subsequently, the second clause was added to the “speed trap” definition to cover inadmissible usage of “radar or other electronic devices”. It considers multiple factors, such as the operation standards of devices, training of police officers, and whether the enforced speed limits were properly justified.

From Wikipedia. See the following for a thorough explanation of “speed trap:” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_trap

There is a big difference between using an unfair advantage (like waiting where a 25mph meets a 35 mph) to create revenue from tickets and enforcing traffic laws.

From what I have read on this site, IF needs more enforcement, not less.

I’ve been pulled over a few times in “speed trap” areas, but I have never been given a ticket even though I deserved one, because I was speeding. The cop told me that the main reason he pulled me over was to slow me down. Now, if I didn’t slow down and was pulled over again later that day or even the next day, I am sure I would have gotten a ticket. I’ve never heard of anyone getting a ticket for doing a couple of miles over the speed limit (a school zone might be an exception and if so, rightfully so). I thought that they didn’t give tickets until you hit about 10 miles over.

What do people think the speed limits are there for? To see how fast they can go and not get caught? Some people just have to always push the envelope, and then if they get caught, they cry foul.

Aren’t cops employed to enforce laws? If people have a problem with cops enforcing a given law, that needs to be addressed by focussing on amending the law.

The utter morons I daily encounter on the road are just other drivers, not cops, and it seems like IF has enough problems attracting and keeping adequate, satisfied and satisfactory law enforcement, judging just from the comments on this site, without a bunch of senseless cop bashing. Not to mention that several on this site have assured me that I will encounter regular red light running, speeding, turn signal-free attempted vehicular homicide perps at every IF intersection.

I hope the cops where I will be living are going to be parked strategically not only to enforce speed-limits and protect my children, but to keep track of who is coming and going in the neighborhood, and pulling them over routinely.

This is the spouse of the person normally writing under this account, aka I’m the cop.

I’m not going to try and support or defend speed enforcement as I doubt I’m really going to change anyone’s mind one way or the other. But I would like to make a few comments to illuminate a few things that might give non cops a better idea of what really is going on with the police.

1) I never see a dime of the money from any ticket I write personally and I see no tangible benefit to my department for them. I get credit on my ticket count for writing a normal ticket or a warning ticket so really there is no pressure for me to write one vs the other. We don’t have a quota per se as my spouse said but traffic enforcement is part of our job and we are expected to do it. And all that matters there is that a supervisor can look at our ticket count and see that we are out there doing something.

2) My decision to write one way or the other is almost always made up before I’ve even talked to the person I’ve pulled over. In other words you can’t talk yourself out of a ticket. And this is true of most cops. If you get a warning its because we already intended to give a warning before we ever even talked to you. Half the time we are just fishing to see if your drunk or shows signs you might be transporting drugs. If things look good we send you on your way with a warning. But you can talk yourself into a ticket by being a complete and utter *******. Our goal is change driving behavior for the better. If your attitude is one that basically implies you think your above the law and cops suck you’ve taken a big step towards convincing us you need a real ticket to encourage better driving in the future.

3) I don’t even blink at speeders unless they are going at least 10 over. And then I often ignore them until they are 15 over. Its the big fish vs little fish theory. I let the little ones go else I’ll miss the big one shortly thereafter.

4) I think I and most cops would agree that traffic on 17th is really bad and that tailgating and quick lane changes are a big problem. But a marked police car has this odd effect of causing everyone in the vicinity to drive carefully. I see all kinds of bad driving in my personal car on 17th but very little in my police car. Obviously the key would be to drive an unmarked car but that then would require officers in marked cars hiding just off the street waiting to pull people over for the guy in the unmarked car. Due to manpower constraints this kind of thing only can be done in saturation efforts which we have a few times a year.

5) Most of the time I don’t even know the sex or race of the person I’ve pulled over til I’ve made contact. Especially at night where I never have any idea. Thats why profiling claims always bother me.

6) When you get pulled over your worried that your getting a ticket. The cop as he approaches you is worried he is going to get shot or hit by a passing motorist. Every cop who has ever gone to the academy has seen far too many videos from dashboard cams of cops gunned down as the reach the window of the car they pulled over on what the cop thought was a routine traffic stop. One such video came from an ISP trooper and happened just outside Idaho Falls so it can happen here. And every cop who has made more than three traffic stops in his career has had someone flame out on them for pulling them over yelling about “Shouldn’t you be out catching murderers and rapists?” And every cop has seen videos of cops mowed down by passing motorists who failed to move over and out of the way the traffic stop. You hear non cops say that domestics are the most dangerous call for a cop. Thats not true, routine traffic stops are. Just something to keep in mind when your pulled over. There is no excuse for the cop being rude but he’s got all these kind of things in the back of his mind while making contact with you. There is a difference between being rude and being professional but some people see anything that doesn’t involve joking and laughing as rude.

7) If the cop is professional with you and not rude then try to keep things in perspective. You were most likely pulled over a valid reason and chances are you deserved the ticket you got, if you got one. I know I personally deserved the tickets I got in my youth though at the time I thought the cop was a jerk for giving me the ticket. In hindsight it was apparent I was the jerk and I should have remembered that the cop was just doing his / her job.

I won’t comment on ongoing cases or personnel issues so don’t ask. I tell my spouse things at times and at times she has pushed the edge of what I’m comfortable with her saying. I certainly can’t and won’t say anything and after this comment will be probably just go back to reading what she writes on occasion.

The term Speed Trap is really not useful here unless there is some consensus on its meaning. A cop who is stationary with radar is not creating a speed trap, absent some other extenuating factor, like poorly placed signs, such that no reasonable person could avoid being over the speed limit at that spot, at least as my understanding of the term goes. The nature of speed traps is such, again, to my understanding, that they do not bear up under scrutiny, and I believe what you are referring to is just the enforcement of speed limits by police in stationary marked cars. Can we at least get an agreed upon definition of this term for the sake of this conversation?

I was caught in a “speed trap” on 25th right in front of community park about 3 years ago. I had just bought my first Harley and was clocked going 50mph in a 25mph zone on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
I had no plates, no title, no proof of insurance, and no motorcycle license. The officer asked me if I was having fun and I couldn’t help but blurt out a big “Hell Yeah”! The officer chuckled, cautioned be for speeding in an area with so many kids around, and gave me a speeding ticket. He let me slide on all the non-moving offenses and I promised to get down to the court house the following week and take care of my rider responsibilities, which I did.
Speed traps my butt, he was there to make sure some dipstick didn’t run a kid over because he’s going twice the speed limit. The reason they lower the speed limit on Rollandet is because little league is in full swing for the summer and it’s best to error on the side of caution. Put away the radar detector, loose that Ricky race care driver attitude, and slow the hell down.

Ya got me!!!

I think most of us understood and appreciated what you were saying. But you must expect outbursts to spice things up

Just a thought:

I live in the numbered streets in Idaho Falls. Frequently, these one-way-streets become a shortcut for individuals seeking to avoid the congestion on 17th street, John Adams, etc. The speed limit is 25 MPH on my street, and I would LOVE to see it decreased to 15-20 MPH due to children playing, cars being hit (my families vehciles have been hit at least 4 times . . . hit and run), etc. If I petitioned the city council to decrease the speed on my street and won, would my street then become a speed trap or a safe street?

(Sometimes I daydream of building my own speedbump in front of my house . . . a huge one . . . wouldn’t it be fun to watch these commuters cars go flying through the air as the unexpectantly hit my 2 foot bump? YEEHAWWWWW!!!!!!!)

What about Noise Park west of town…Can people tool around on that?

From the Marin IJ:
New technology lets CHP catch speeders with ease
By John Dugan
Article Launched: 05/27/2008 04:17:13 PM PDT

Speeders beware: California Highway Patrol officers are wielding powerful new laser guns that have helped them hand out far more speeding tickets than they have in the past.

Officers are using a handheld laser device called a Light Detection and Ranging gun, or LIDAR, that is far more accurate than radar.

In the first four months of this year, Marin CHP officers issued 700 more tickets than in the same period last year; over the past eight months they issued 5,155 tickets, up from 3,237 for the same previous period.

“LIDAR is a lot more accurate than radar ever was,” said CHP spokeswoman Mary Ziegenbein. “If there’s a group of 15 cars in front of an officer, LIDAR can pick out just the one car you point it at.”

The new technology uses a highly concentrated laser beam that is only three feet wide at a distance of 1,000 feet. Radar, by contrast, is about 100 feet wide at 1,000 feet away.

Officers can point the LIDAR gun at a speeding car and get an exact reading on the car’s speed and distance from the gun. As long as the officer has decent aim, the reading will be for the targeted car and not for surrounding cars.

“You pick up a lot of cars with radar, and there’s a lot of visual estimation on our part,” Officer Patrick Roth said. “They could dispute it in court. With LIDAR, there’s no estimation, so there’s not really any way to dispute it.”

The new lasers have not completely replaced radar. The CHP has six of the new guns, which cost about $2,500 each. Most officers still use radar and visual estimation.

The CHP has had at least one laser on hand since 1996 and has been using it on the Golden Gate Bridge since then. It received the go-ahead to start using LIDAR on a widespread basis about a year ago from the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

Using the new technology has made it easier for officers to hide and wait for speeders to pass.

“Because our cars are so visible, people usually just slow down when they see us,” Ziegenbein said. “Now we can get a reading before they even know where we are.”

Speed limits on Highway 101 are 55 and 65 mph, depending on location; tickets for a first-time offender is commonly $150 or higher, depending on how much the driver exceeds the limit and other factors such as recklessness, Ziegenbein said.

Officer Sandro Salvetti uses LIDAR on the Golden Gate Bridge and said he doesn’t need the laser in the car to benefit from it. An officer can ride a bike onto the bridge and set up, clocking speeds from a walkway and radioing ahead to another officer to pull over a speeding driver.

Officers have also been able to use the lasers to measure distances at crash scenes and other places. Despite its many uses, LIDAR is as small as a radar gun.

“Things are a lot easier having (LIDAR) around,” Roth said. “They’re very portable and light. It’s made our jobs a lot easier.”

Contact John Dugan via e-mail at jdugan@marinij.com

Cut n paste….it’s a beautiful thing.

I have a question for the officer if he’ll answer. Why do officers not pull over the drivers going 20 mph on 17th Street homesteading the left lane? Just the other day, I traveled all the way from Hitt Road to Boulevard behind two pickups both going between 20 and 25, side by side. We missed every light! No bad weather, no bad traffic, just the three of us for the most part. By the time I got around these two goofballs, it was all I could do not to absolutely floor it out of frustration. Sometimes, isn’t the reason we weave in and out and exceed the limits because we’ve become so absolutely frustrated at being forced to drive so slowly, missing every light, with no end in sight? Isn’t obstructing the flow of traffic also a violation? Isn’t using the left lane to travel the entire length of 17th (left lane is for passing, isn’t it?) at 20 mph a violation? Are you permitted to pull someone like this over and warn them that they are violating the traffic laws? I mean, the way I see it is all too often, we have complaints that people are using the residential streets, and speeding, to avoid congestion on 17th. Why do we have congestion? Yes, there are a lot of vehicles, and we don’t have turnout lanes everywhere we should, but I have way too much experience with too-slow drivers and common sense to not know that some of the problem is the too-slow drivers.

There’s minimum speed limits on the interstate and hwy’s, why not city streets. I completely agree with another guest. It’s like these people have nothing better to do than drive around the city daydreaming and going 10 under the limit. Their impedeing the natural flow of traffic and it is considered a hazard, but unfortunately the cops are too busy worried about those of us going 5-10 over.
(flame on!)

See 007, cut and paste really IS a beautiful thing!

Check this out, for citizen activism ideas where driving is concerned:

http://drunkdriverhunters.com/

Thanks for doing my work for me Crystal. I appreciate that!
What now anonymous?

How do you know which anonymous you are responding to and which spouse is operating under the Anonymous you refer to?

Guest House, you are the same poster who was attempting to deride me in the “alive after five” thread, and I don’t like it.

At least this Anonymous, who we have yet to identify, is making statements which follow logically from the facts as they understood them, which is more than I could say about some here, and posts without insulting or bullying.

Also, are there no female cops in Idaho? Because I don’t recall Spouse of Anonymous you refer to, who identifies self as a cop, as stating their gender. Everyone knows what assuming makes out of you and me, even if they don’t drive.

Lastly, if “It’s common knowledge that there is a minimum speed law in every state. It may not be posted, but you’ll usually find it noted in every drivers license manual when you get your license at 16. Everyone knows that you’re a hazard to other drivers if you drive too slowly.” then how do you explain the phenomenon Another Guest and CR67 refer to?

“phenomenon”

Without a solid number on the books regarding a minmum speed, it becomes very vauge and tough to interpret.

TITLE 49
MOTOR VEHICLES
CHAPTER 6
RULES OF THE ROAD
49-655. MINIMUM SPEED REGULATION. No person shall drive a motor vehicle
at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of
traffic except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in
compliance with the law.

Police officers aren’t as likely to pick someone up with a law that is so vauge like Title 49. It would be tough to prove in traffic court and only the most extreme violations would be easy to prove.

Gotta love it!

Re #71, I thought “vague” made a cops actions easier to justify? More room to maneuver, so to speak.

I’m with CafeDelSol in #74, that was one of the first rules I learned, even before driving, and again, it has to do with circumstance rather than actual speed, ie if you are impeding three vehicles regardless of rate of speed you need to get out of the way at the soonest reasonable opportunity, or at least that is my understanding. Gets back to physics of moving objects and courtesy.

The phenomenon referred to was that of obnoxious slow drivers. If Guest_House is correct as quoted above then this phenomenon would not exist.

AMEN TO THAT!

Crystal, you keep saying, over and over, that you are being “picked on”. Could you just give us some examples? So far, you have just stated generally that you have been “picked on”; “ganged up on”; and otherwise victimized, yet I have never seen that. I have only seen posters ask you to be nice in your comments and refrain from some of the foul language you used in the chatbox about the “obese speeders”…(the rest is better left unsaid),

Maybe some specific examples would be better than endless definitions or obscenities in the scrolling chat?

I think it would be good for Joe to go through every thread and eliminate all the many posts that are condescending, belittling and hostile to other posters prior to advertising this site. Examples aren’t needed. They’re all over the place. If they don’t pertain directly to the articles but are posted as a way to undermine or belittle another poster with sarcasm and ridicule and spiteful words, they should be deleted. It’s all there, all you have to do is look. Some people spend way too much time here and that’s probably why other’s don’t spend enough.

#81 – I hope you are joking. For the new Joe to go through every thread on this site and edit those types of comments would be completely overwhelming, time consuming and IMO unnecessary. Have you reviewed how many threads are here? He has a life, and a job which I’m sure is busy enough. If he devoted himself full time to it, maybe it could be finished by Christmas. Doing it would leave threads choppy.

Realistically, why can’t those who post call someone on the carpet if a comment goes overboard, or cut at paste it and email it to Joe? (rule 9) I think we would be more effective policing ourselves from this day forward. Before I post anything, I re-read it in relation to the rules.

I also think it’s unnecessary. If someone posts a comment thats offensive to someone else, just don’t reply to it. Its that simple imo. Also, the new Joe already stated he would err on the side of free speech, which I think is a good idea. It seems to me that some people are easily offended and/or take certain comments more to heart than others. The whole site shouldnt have to pay for the comments of a few. If a certain comment is not something one person agrees with, than argue against the comment itself, not the commentator.

so much for my last suggestion, I did a search for “easterner” and only came up with one result from google’s search of this site.

But as stated in #81, “Examples aren’t needed. They’re all over the place.”

Babs, here is an example: I am clearly not the only person experiencing this, but when I am the one raising the issue I get singled out. If you read my post above that you were responding to, you will find that my concern is for other users. Why do you keep making it about me? I think you know it isn’t about me, but about an ongoing phenomenon here that you are part of. Why don’t you just move on by not doing it any more?

so what did I say that you were specifically looking for when you looked through? I’m happy to repeat anything I’ve posted; I have not attacked anyone, nor have I “ganged up” on anyone.

Crystal, you used some incredibly foul language in the chatbox and called a bunch of regulars “obese speeders” who were . . . doing things to themselves sexually…..

…so maybe you need to take a good hard look at your own behavior?

or are you denying you wrote such nasty commentary about a group of people? I am quite sure I wasn’t the only one who read that.

Easterner, I read that, also. You weren’t imagining things.

However, now that I see the other post that Crystal was referring to, I will follow her there for future comments of this sort…and leave this post/thread to be about speedtraps!

Look out for the 25 mph trap on Skyline Drive. Cops love to nail people who go down that hill. And they hang out there lots.

I would love to know who the attorney is that someone mentioned to go fight your ticket for 60 bucks. I know my husband charges $175/hour (on the low side) and if he has to sit in traffic court for a cattle call he can get stuck there for 4 hours waiting for his client to get called.

Fortunately, every ticket he has fought has never had to go to court, but it still cost more than 60 bucks!

Unfortunately there IS profiling going on, as we have seen come through our office when a client has gotten that same ticket 4 or 5 times over the course of two weeks. Pretty easy to get rid of though, when the cops cite the wrong statute consistently!

I know lots of attorneys who will charge a low flat fee for tickets…I have been charged as low as $50.

It is incredibly easy legal work, I’m told. Attorneys will gladly help out with a traffic ticket and then they have instant word-of-mouth recognition for that person’s next legal need.

Of course it depends on the attorney, that goes without saying. You’re not going to hire a criminal defense attny or a divorce attny for a traffic infraction. (unless you’ve got a vehicular homocide charge against you)My traffic attorney always charged me 60 bucks no matter what the offense was and my offenses were anywhere from reckless driving (which is anything 20mph & over) to not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign to 7 mph over. Sometimes the court costs were more than others, but her fee was always the same.
So you’re advice is “don’t speed” huh? LOL Good luck getting people to take that advice. People are always going to speed, period. The advice I would give is, IF & when you’re going to speed, be prepared to pay the price. (or your attny in this case) Compared to most states Idaho is pretty lax when it comes to actual “speed traps”. Sure there are a few, but far less than most of the states I’ve lived in and frequently travel through. The point is, don’t automatically pay the ticket. 99% of the time you’ll be able to fight it and win, and walk out with simple court costs. (if that)
Thanks for sharing your point of view though.
Have a great day!

Did anybody notice they finally fixed the RR crossing on Broadway? I wanted to post it on the Broadway Railroad crossing post but I can’t seem to find it. It appears that quite a few older posts have disappeared. What gives Mr.Eagle?
Anyways, it looks much better and seems to be smoother for the most part. Although going across it heading east is still a little bumpy. Nothing like before though so that’s good.

I was going to start a new post on this topic but didn’t know if much would come of it, so I’m posting it here.
What do you think about those folks that camp out in the left lane on the interstate slowing down and/or impeding the natural flow of traffic? Don’t they realize the left lane is the passing lane? Some states are now beginning to hand out tickets to those that linger in the left hand lane and I for one say “bravo”!!
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/left-lane-slowpokes-drive-you-crazy.aspx
In Washington State it’s a 124 dollar ticket for going too slow in the left lane or for impeding traffic. The way I see it is, if you want to do the exact speed limit than park your butt in the right hand lane and let others pass you by.
Idaho has this law as well, but it’s obviously not enforced.
http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=490060030.K
Do you think it should be or would you rather our highway patrolmen sit in the median with their radar trying to catch speeders?

I knew I was making a difference by driving like a maniac!
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/29/152243/Rude-Drivers-Reduce-Traffic-Jams?from=rss
j/k!

Wonderfully accurate article on Lew Rockwell on this very topic, I hope the mods or others won’t mind my quoting from it and linking to it. Just so happened that’s why I was thinking of the Carlin quote I imagine:

“….Then there is the state. Soon after moving to Milwaukee, I received a speeding ticket (a.k.a. frivolous taxation). I was clocked doing 65 in a 50 zone. Of course no one was doing the speed limit. This was on the interstate. Can you imagine going 50 mph on the interstate? It’s absurd. Everyone goes 5–10 mph at least over the posted speed limit and they do just fine. I just happened to be coming from a 65 mph zone and was going 15 mph over it so I stuck out in the herd…”

http://www.lewrockwell.com/cooper/cooper8.html

I’ve been driving for 30 years and have never been involved in an accident, my fault or someone else’s, and I’ve NEVER filed an insurance claim although I’ve been forced to pay in excess of $30,000 in state mandated insurance premiums over that time but I certainly received my share of speeding tickets. I think we can close the book on speeding alone being the cause of accidents, don’t you?

My Florida license even has “safe driver” stamped on it and that’s because I am. There are so many factors that figure into a safe driver: experience, condition of the driver, condition of the road, condition of the car, etc… I am a very conscience, defensive driver and I’m proud of it, so you can imagine my ire when a 34-year-old sheriff’s deputy pulls me over to harass me and tax me and educate me on the error of my ways.

Good comment Alice.
As for me, I never admit guilt to a driving infraction whether I know I’m guilty or not. That’s what lawyers are for and I’ll gladly represent myself or hire an attorney, depending on the ticket, instead of paying the fine, receiving points on my license and having my insurance premium go up. Thankfully I’ve slowed down and am more careful in my older age so I haven’t received a ticket for years. Knock on wood…..

I thought we already knew the cops point if view, “I caught you! I caught you doing what I have never done and will help propagate the state by imposing yet another tax on you!” or simply to “harass me and tax me and educate me on the error of my ways.”

What I want to hear admitted is who is policing the cameras that your associates have installed at every traffic light in town?

Where does this footage go and who is in charge of it?Is it sold out to a corporation such as Loch-Heed Martin?

When will the people of I.F. be expecting tickets from your Un-Constitutional and Orwellian Spy Cameras? Or is this already in place?

Smokin Joe has been smoking too much of something. Those aren’t cameras on the traffic poles, those are the sensors that cause the lights to switch when a car pulls up. You ever wonder why sometimes in the winter the lights don’t seem to change – its because snow or ice has covered the sensor.

You think all cops do is write tickets WendyJo?

Most patrol cops have very little time to write traffic tickets as they are too busy handling domestics, burglaries, fights, and other calls for service. And when they aren’t on those calls they are busy writing the reports from those calls. Most departments have a few officers dedicated to doing nothing but traffic enforcement but the majority of officers are busy doing the things I mentioned.

WndyJo, The day to day thing really depends on the shift that a person is working. The city always worked 3 rotating shifts — days, swings and midnight. Days was from 7 am to 3 pm, swing shift from 3 to 11pm and mids was from 11 to 7 the next morning. Day shift was usually a drag. You started out kinda slow on most mornings, checking the area that you have been assigned, looking for broken windows in businesses, anything out of place. You drive around and watch traffic, look for anything suspicious and wait for a call. The calls that come in are usually pretty dull — things that have already happend and are over. Like thefts, burglaries, vandalism, etc. Quite a number of vehicle accident reports during the day shift, especially if it is raining or winter. The day kind of drags on and you take whatever calls you are assigned. At some point in the early afternoon you try to get into the the station and get your reports done and turned in. Now I believe they have computers in the cars, so perhaps they are now doing more report writing in the cars rather than in the station. Day shift sucks, especially for a younger officer.

Afternoon shift isnt bad. From 3 pm to about 7 or 8 you take a few calls, drive around and check your area. Good time to watch traffic, especially in the summer. You never know when you will see some idiot on a bullet bike traveling 90 mph down Broadway. By 8 pm you start getting a few more calls, especially if it is in the summer on friday or saturday night. Domestic disputes (family fights) car accidents, neighbors arguing or fighting. You try to get some time to get home and have some dinner with your family but its hard to do most of the time. From 8 to 11 pm is usually fun — especially on the weekends and in the summer. Things pick up. Alot of traffic out, people are off work and relaxed. Many have been drinking. Traffic accidents, family disputes, DUI arrests, traffic stops — all keep you pretty busy during this period. You try to get reports caught up by the end of the shift so you can get out of there and go home on time. This shift is a blast on a warm summer friday or saturday night.

Nights go from 11 pm to 7 am. They can be alot of fun on a weekend when things are busy. alot of fights, disturbances, DUI’s and other traffic offenses. The later it gets the more “family type” people go home and go to bed. The concentration of people who are partying, driving crazy, fighting or are just generally up to no good goes up. Not saying that everyone who is out at 3 am is up to no good, but if you find a car parked behind Albertsons with a few people in it at 3 in the afternoon you dont really even look twice. At 3 in the morning it a different story. To a degree you have to actually change your mindset from shift to shift. On mid nights you spend alot of time thinking about the possibilty of dying. even in little old Idaho Falls. You have to be very careful with everyone that you make contact with. Its very stressful, particularly as you grow older. I have had midnight shifts where I didnt have a call all night. I drove around listening to a good rock n roll station wondering why I hadnt become a dentist. I have had midnight shifts where I ran lights and sirens all night long from one call to another, back and fourth acoss town. I would get home on one of those mornings so amped up I couldnt sleep all day. Again I wondered why I hadnt become a dentist.

Really any shift can be the most slow, boaring time of your life, or it can be packed with more action that any person would even want. It just depends on the day of week, time of year, weather and other factors. A full moon really does promise action. I have seen it time and time again.

One night I was working at about 2 a.m. I was covering the numbered streets as part of my area of responsibility. A woman had called 911 and was frantically talking to the dispatcher. There was someone breaking into her home on the first floor. She was upstairs in her bedroom and was awakend by the noise downstairs. The noise was apparently someone breaking open her sliding glass patio door. Her young children were upstairs sleeping in seperate bedrooms. Her husband was out of town, and she was scared to death. The Dispatcher was getting updated information from the woman and passing it on to us as half the shift headed quickly to the woman’s address. I was close, only a few blocks away. I could hear a little concern in the Dispatchers voice when she gave out information. Things like “the person is in the home now.” Or “the caller can hear someone walking around in the kitchen” I was close when I got the call so after just a couple of minutes I checked out in the area and told the Dispatcher to tell the woman that I was there. I parked down the street a few houses and walked quickly to the womans house. Back up officers started arriving and we had the area contained. I walked quickly to the back of the house and saw the glass patio door had been removed. I remember having a good feeling inside knowing that the dispatcher had by now told the woman that we were outside and she was going to be ok. And she was. I was proud of that.

After that call was over and I was in the station writing up the report I had one of those moments. One of those moments when I really understood why I had not become a Dentist. Why I had become a cop.

Was that the home of Smokin’Joe? I dont know. Probably not, but ya never know. I dont care whose home it was. Back in those days I would have driven as fast as I could and done whatever was within my power to get there and protect the folks in that home. Even if it cost me my life doing it. Sounds cliche’ I know. But no matter what the call — “shots fired” — “crazy maniac with a gun killing people” — whatever! While everyone runs AWAY from the danger the cops are speeding towards it to try to help some innocent person in any way they can. And what do we get for it? Enough money to ALMOST pay the bills — and to listen to folks like smokinJoe talk his crap about how we harrass innocent people etc. etc. But when Smokin Joe calls 911 because some slime ball has him tied up in a corner and is holding a knife blade to Mrs. SmokinJoe’s throat — one of my brother officers will get there just as fast as he can to help. That my friends is a promise.

Thanks “Just Me”. Awesome post. I wish you were around here more often.

One question. You seem to indicate that things get “fun” when people are out doing bad things. Is it possible that during the dull times some cops look for things that aren’t really that big of a deal just to try to make their day more exciting?

I like the police force in general. I appreciate very much what they do. But there alwasy seems to be that group of cops that walk around with an authoritative chip on their shoulders instead of looking to serve the public. (yes, i understand the risk of the job and the need to always be cautious, but I’m talking about the outright chip on the shoulder. ) It’s cops like those that tend to give a bad aura to all the other cops.

Thanks Anon — post #125. Good question about the “fun” remark I made. I actually had to think about that for a moment. I had to ponder for a moment why I even used that word, because most of the memories that I have of my time in police work are not “fun” memories. But after some thought I realized that for me it was an age thing. I remember when I was in my early 20’s and I would be getting in the shower — getting ready to go to work on a Friday or Saturday night I actually hurried — trying to get ready and go because I was so excited to get to work. It really was “fun” for me then. Bar fights, driving fast, somthing new and exciting always possibly around the next corner. It really is fun to catch a burglar inside a building in the middle of the night or kick in a bathroom stall door and point a gun in the face of a bank robber who is sitting in the stall counting his money with his gun on the floor by his foot (that was a dayshift). That stuff was great fun back when i was not old and wide enough to understand how dangerous it was. As I got older the “fun” stuff started to seem like it was all more danger than it was was worth, at least for me. So, I guess it really was fun at one time, but it grows less and less fun as each year passes by. The memories that stick in your mind are the bad ones. The suicides, children who have been traumatized — SIDS death babies, etc. The Jaralee Underwood case has always bothered me. “fun” for me never involved anyone getting hurt. It was just when I would get that rush of adrenylin that other adrenylin junkies love just as much as I did. And the nights which were filled with “action” certainly went by faster than the nights during which NOTHING happend, and I certainly had my share of those. I remember being so tired driving around town on a slow night — at 4 a.m. I would see 3 stop signs at every corner sometimes. Had to get out and walk around — get some coffee and some air. It was miserable. Shift work will kill you a little bit each night. I agree about the cops with the chips on their shoulders. Some old timers — still on the street can have that problem. They never promoted, and after 30 years driving around in a patrol car most anyone would be a little grumpy I imagine. The chip on the shoulder can almost be standard for many young officers who really have never been in a position of authority before and may not know how to handle it — and even let it go to their heads. The good cops know that they truely are there to serve. The job is simply to help people. All people. Even a DUI arrest might be the help that a person needs to get his/her life back on track. You go home aafter a shift and hope. I remember one guy who was in the back of my police car one night, under arrest for for a fight or some minor offense. He was drunk out of his mind. He sat in the back seat and looked around– a place he had been many times before. I had my dome light on as I wrote some information down and i glanced in the mirror and saw him. He looked around the back seat and said “Damn it! I promised myself I would never get arrested again and here I am! Damn it! Whats wrong with me?” I looked at him and asked — “Buddy how many times have you been in the backseat of a police car SOBER?” It was like a light bulb went off in the back seat when his eyes popped open and he thought. He sat there for a minute and said “I’ve never been in a police car when I was sober.” and I said “well, there ya go. We solved all your problems tonight, now didnt we.” To this day I dont know whatever happend to him. I hope that he remembers that night as well as I do. I hope he stopped drinking (as he obviously had a problem with it) and never did end up in the back seat of a police car again. I hoped I helped him. in some way. I could go on and on, but you get the point. Its a crappy dangerous job, but I am proud to have done it. I cant explain or appologize for the cops who dont understand what it really is all about. Just please dont ever lump them all in one category — and try to appreciate the difficulty of the position. Its hard on families and it’s hard on the officers and still, they are out there 24X7 and will come to any call to help you when you call. Thats worth something.

Unfortunately, none of those will be considered mitigating in court IMO. You admitted to going 78 in a 65 and that will be that. Chalk one up to experience and pay the ticket. I-15 south of Fort Hall through Pocatello has been under contruction forever it seems, but the speed limit has always dropped from 75 to 65 to 55 as you go by the stretch near the hotels. Sorry, but I think court would waste your day.

It would not necessarily be a waste of time to go to court. I got a ticket a few years back on I-15 in Pocatello. I went ahead and paid it, even though I was just moving along with the traffic flow when I was cited. Later when I looked up my driving record it showed a ticket for speeding in a construction zone, which as I understand carries twice the penalty as regular speeding. I wish I would have fought the ticket. I have challenged a few tickets before, and if the citing officer doesn’t show up they will dismiss the ticket. You still have to notify the court ahead of time that you plan to plead innocent. You may even have to post a bond. But there is a good chance you will beat the ticket. Cops don’t like to go to court that much.

There is one factor I failed to mention in my initial post – I was traveling in the right hand lane – never passed anyone though plenty flew by me. I could see it if I had been in the passing lane and passing other traffic, but I wasn’t. Guest mentioned that I had to notify the court that I intended to plead innocent. It doesn’t say anything about that on the ticket – just says what time I have to show up at the courthouse. Can you give me more info?

You show up at the Bonds and Fines office and enter a plea of not guilty on that date, or pay it by the date. They’ll give you a court date. And, FYI to all, it’s an “old wives tale” if the officer doesn’t show up you’ll get off. The court system is much more sophisticated with speeding tickets than this. Good luck unfair, let us know how your case turns out. Are you really willing to take it to a jury trial? The minute they hear you admit to speeding, it’s probably over.

Its also an old wives tale that police officers hate to go to court. Most police officers work second jobs just to try and cover the bills and court time is overtime pay if it falls on their off time so they can make much more money going to court for an hour than they can working much longer at their second job. I have an officer friend who often says he wishes everyone would contest their tickets because he needs the money.