Waldo Florida Spped Trap

Don't know if it's true, but I read this morning That the county sheriff's office has taken over law enforcement in Waldo.

puttd wrote:
The point is that if the police officers are told to ticket X number of people per hour or get fired, if there aren't enough speeders, they are going to start ticketing people who aren't speeding. And that is not fair. When I drive Waldo, I drive five under, with cruise control, speed verified by GPS. And i have gotten sick enough of it, I take a different route.

This happened to my sister in McMinneville Tn, School treasurer and fill in teacher, Pastor's wife, active in the community. She got a ticket for going through a stop sign. She was stopped at the stop sign comming from the other direction. She doesn't take any gruff. He said it doesn't matter you didn' stop sometime and wrote her the ticket. Her Boss took the side of the Officer, It was political in this case. We can no longer blindly trust those we put in positions of trust.

Tom N wrote:
What is perceived as a problem is easily solved by observing the speed limits. An excellent idea, anywhere, for all RV'ers And, makes the 301 corridor safer for all pedestrians and drivers.

There are/were six speed changes in 2 miles. Going in the other direction had different speed limits. It was set up on purpose as a speed trap. This is not the first time Waldo has been on the wall of shame. Perhaps you've had the pleasure, of your 69 ft rig decelerating three times in a space short enough to smoke the brakes. One of the signs, in the median had 45 on one side and I think it was 55 on the other side of the street.

It's Waldo in Florida. Who cares? OBEY THE FREAKING SPEED SIGNS.

Speed in a car and get caught, tough crap.

Speed in an RV, you are a fool, and deserve to be caught and ticketed.

There is a section of I-45 north of Houston Texas that runs through THREE towns concurrently: The Woodlands on the west side of the freeway, Oakridge North on the east side and Shenandoah, which butts up to The Woodlands for about a mile.

This area is about 8 miles long and, while NOT a Speed Trap, frequently has 2-3 cops FROM EACH CITY staked out trying to get "a piece of the pie". 6-9 cops in that stretch & they're nearly running over EACH OTHER to get the next speeder.

Do NOT speed on I-45 N. from FM 1488 exit to FM 2920 exit in EITHER direction (North OR South) or you WILL get pulled over.

The point is that if the police officers are told to ticket X number of people per hour or get fired, if there aren't enough speeders, they are going to start ticketing people who aren't speeding. And that is not fair. When I drive Waldo, I drive five under, with cruise control, speed verified by GPS. And i have gotten sick enough of it, I take a different route.

2012Coleman wrote:
Gotta love all these ignorant comments from people who don't even live in the state or have even driven through this town.

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.

Now it comes to light from a group of police officers who stated at a city council meeting that they had been ordered by the police chief to write at least 12 tickets per 12-hour shift or face repercussions.

In 2013, Waldo's seven police officers filed 11,603 traffic citations, according to records obtained by the Gainesville Sun newspaper. That compares with 25,461 citations in 2013 for much larger Gainesville, which has 300 officers and 128,000 residents, including thousands of college students.

The fines paid by motorists are a big money-maker. According to the city's 2013 budget, about half of its $1 million in revenue came from "court fines" from tickets issued.

This intention is to raise revenue - has nothing to do with safety. Even the most careful driver has a difficult time adjusting their speed through this town. Lets see how well you could do up there on your high horse.

Finally some one who has it right...it has nothing to do with "well if you don't speed you won't get a ticket.....hogwash.

What Waldo was demanding their officers do is illegal, you cannot put quotas on police officers.
One has quit, he was really being pressured to produce more tickets.

This needs to be cleaned up....
Sher

In my mind, Lawtey and Starke are far worse for monitoring their speed limits than Waldo ever was. At least Waldo had signs indicating they enforced the speed limit rigidly, the other two just do it and no signs like Waldo.

Its no more of a speed trap than any other small town that has a major highway US301, running through it. The problem, the chief mandated a quota of 12 tickets per shift for each officer. That mandate is a violation of Florida Law. The chief sent emails warning officers that if they didn't meet the quota, they would be required to either work longer hours and make up the deficit or have it taken out of their pay. Now that action sets up a speed trap even for the law abiding citizen.
I understand the FLDOT has been instructed to change all the speed limits in Waldo to the same speed.

You might want to exercise caution a little further north in Lawtey, FL. Another town that generates more than 50% of their towns budget from ticket revenue.

sorry double post see below..