Deceptive traffic citations

[senecal_tony]

First, let me introduce myself; I am a 69 year old man that has been driving since I was 16 years old and have never received any driving citation or ticket except in Louisiana, specifically the Lasalle Parish. For the past 15 + years we have owned and driven motor homes. Currently, my wife and I are retired and travel extensively. We do most of our travel in a 34 foot motor home pulling a jeep (4 wheels down). Something to keep in mind while reading our story; I follow the traffic laws and do not go beyond speed limits. When you are an experienced driver of an RV and know that length and weight of specifically a motor home while pulling a vehicle have an impact on stopping distance; most of the motor home community knows to go below the posted speed limit.

On September 21, 2019 we were traveling through Lasalle Parish, US 165, back to our home in DeRidder Louisiana. Approaching the city of Tullos, we noticed several speed limit changes (65 mph, 55 mph to 45 mph) and we adhered to each by reducing our speed to below the posted limit each time. It should be noted that the notice of the speed limit reduction and the posted speed limit was short in distance in each instance.

As we approached a so called “construction zone” in the city limits of Tullos I noticed several cones and the sign alerting me to reduce speed ahead from 55 mph to 45 mph and immediately began slowing down. Motor Home drivers know that when you hit the brake and have the “Jake Break” on, the vehicle immediately starts to slow by virtue of the engine compression and this was done by me as soon as I seen the notice to reduce speed. One other important item; Two other vehicles went directly in front of me entering into the reduced speed area going much faster than we were.

The police officer writing the citation for 55 mph in a 45 mph zone stated on the ticket that the speed was determined by radar. I was not going 55 mph. The only explanation I could have is the radar is inaccurate or the the radar was shot or initiated just into the notice to reduce speed. Also, why were the two vehicles in front of me ignored?

The purpose of the letter is to warn fellow drivers that the city of Tullos and or Parish of Lasalle in Louisiana has a significant campaign going on to fund city budgets via traffic tickets (commonly know as speed traps).There are many reasons for my getting to this conclusion:

Motor Home drivers are some of the safest drivers on the road (we understand our restrictions to maintain safety).
Who gives a ticket for 55 mph and a 45 mph zone? Is there any room for an equipment malfunction by needing to be recalibrated?
Why were two other vehicles allowed to go through the area faster than myself? I can’t be sure but maybe they were locals and not an out of town tag.
Our home location is 112 miles from the city of Tullos. We could fight this in court with the proverbial “he said she said argument”; may or may not work with the judge. But, why would we travel back for court with an uncertain ending? Could this be part of isolating out of town people for citations know they would more than likely just pay.
I made call to the Tullos mayor’s office on September 24, 2019 to discuss my dissatisfaction with the citation and how the facts and process materialized. The mayor was unavailable but I did speak to a representative in the office. After explaining my displeasure with the citation and requesting the mayor call me back, I was told that the mayor would not call back and that any further objections to the ticket would only be addressed in court. In addition, I have attempted to locate a website or email for the Tullos LA Mayor’s office but could not find anything. That brings me back to the “out of town people receiving citations argument”.
The charge for this citation is $230 (really). They do offer the opportunity to pay the ticket online for an extra $11 and change. There is also an added charge for paying over the phone.

My plan moving forward is to share this experience with the many RV clubs and travel organizations we are members of. I hope that my fellow travelers take notice of the unreasonable citation issuing practices and stay clear of Lasalle parish. Below is what I’ll be sharing so there is no confusion.

Fellow travelers: Stay away from this, in my humble opinion, deceitfully run city of Tullos and or Lasalle parish. The local officials obviously can’t think through ligament and reasonable ways to fund and run the city effectively and turn to trickery or worst by trickery and penalizing law abiding out of town people.

Last but certainly not least; I have paid the $241.50 to the city of Tullos, against my better judgement.

Debton

[westernrvparkow]

JimK-NY wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
I believe there are speed traps. However, I also believe that many people complaining about getting caught in a speed trap, simply got caught speeding.
....

I have ZERO respect for the law and never will again.

I trust then that should the occasion arise that the intervention of law enforcement might work in your favor (say your house is being broken into or you are the victim of another type of crime) you will forego calling the crooked police and just suffer the consequences.

[Walaby]

Dutch_12078 wrote:
The funniest non-ticket speeding stop I had was quite a few years ago when a NY State trooper pulled me over for doing an actual 10 MPH over the limit. I knew he had me, so I was prepared to just accept the ticket and move on. He took my license and registration back to his car, and a couple of minutes later came back and started to hand them to me saying it was my lucky day because his pen ran out of ink. Without thinking, I pulled my pen out of my shirt pocket and handed it to him! He thanked me and headed back to his car again with my license and reg still in hand. About half way there, he stopped for moment and then turned around and came back. He started laughing and said he just couldn't bring himself to write me a ticket with my own pen and I should consider this a verbal warning to just take it a little slower. I thanked him and told him to keep the pen, I had more. 🙂

Now THAT is hilarious.

Mike

[JimK-NY]

toedtoes wrote:
I believe there are speed traps. However, I also believe that many people complaining about getting caught in a speed trap, simply got caught speeding.
....

Do you have a friend or relative who is a police officer? I have seen plenty of speed traps. I can even show you a small town near me that funds their entire government including the fire department based on a speed trap.

As careful as I could be I still got a ticket and summons for kangaroo court. The crook told me I did not stop "long enough" at a stop sign. It was late in the evening with no other cars around and I did stop. The little town has almost no traffic but the kangaroo court held every Monday evening still had close to a 100 people with citations. After several hours of waiting, the "DA", another crook, offered me a deal. I could pay a fine of $75 and leave immediately without any points against the license. I paid up and still consider every police officer and town official to be a likely CROOK. I have ZERO respect for the law and never will again.

[Dutch_12078]

The funniest non-ticket speeding stop I had was quite a few years ago when a NY State trooper pulled me over for doing an actual 10 MPH over the limit. I knew he had me, so I was prepared to just accept the ticket and move on. He took my license and registration back to his car, and a couple of minutes later came back and started to hand them to me saying it was my lucky day because his pen ran out of ink. Without thinking, I pulled my pen out of my shirt pocket and handed it to him! He thanked me and headed back to his car again with my license and reg still in hand. About half way there, he stopped for moment and then turned around and came back. He started laughing and said he just couldn't bring himself to write me a ticket with my own pen and I should consider this a verbal warning to just take it a little slower. I thanked him and told him to keep the pen, I had more. 🙂

[RGar974417]

The cost of these speeding tickets is ridiculous. No penalties for illegal immigration. Just for American citizens.

[Walaby]

If you are out of state, you are an easier target. My wife was driving through a town in Va, with Georgia tags. She was "going with the flow of traffic", and got ticketed. Her first comment to me was "why did he single me out".. I said, "you are easy money... you're likely to not come back and fight". Besides, you were speeding, and you admit it, so pay the ticket.

If there were "other cars", that were "speeding more than you", and they were locals, yeah.. you win. Easy target.

OP joined Oct 3 to complain and won't be back.

Mike

[down_home]

Grand Pa told me about when Tn instituted speed limits, in 1955. Up til then it was reasonable and safe or some such, outside of town limits.
They theory was adopted to set speed limits at 85% of what the average speed was in an area. Porch Sitters didn't like cars whizzing by at 40 or 55 or 65. They relished the days not long before when cars usually drove 15 mph to 30 moh because roads were not that good and cars not that powerful The reason he said was the small town and other Law saw a way to make some money to pay for police and fire. the 85%rule is ridiculous. Reason says you set the speed limit at what the average speed is plus a bit more, unless you are a control freak and also want to use human nature and want to make money writing tickets.
Case in point of the ridiculous logic used is when they inflicted the national 55mh speed limit. It had been 75 in Tn on Interstates and 65 on State Roads.
If you drove 90, or 15 over the 75 mph limit it was considered reckless driving.
When it was 55 if you drove 15mph over the 55 limit or 70 mph it was labeled reckless driving. That defies logic and reason. Reasonable and prudent should be the rule,and ticket issued to persons driving 10 mph under in the left lane and other regulations to harmonize traffic flow.

[qtla9111]

Reminds me of the famous speed trap in Selma, Tx just outside of San Antonio.

[CavemanCharlie]

A town I live near has the speed limit drop from 65 to 45 on the edge of town. Problem is the sign that says Speed Change Ahead is mounted very close to the speed limit sign. And, the Speed Change Ahead sign is at the top of a hill and on a slight curve. If you want to get down to the new limit on time you are going to have to hit the brakes hard, and they get hot. The cop likes to set at the bottom of the hill and write up tickets. I've seen the truckers get their brakes smoking hot trying to get down to speed on time when they see the cop.

It's a trap. The signs are to close together.

[toedtoes]

I believe there are speed traps. However, I also believe that many people complaining about getting caught in a speed trap, simply got caught speeding.

Oftentimes an officer is handing out tickets because of complaints by the local residents. I got a ticket like that once. It was a common commute route and the homeowners complained enough about speeding that the PD set up an officer to hand out tickets over the course of a week. I got caught speeding and got a ticket. It wasn't a speed trap, it was a focused application.

The officer even apologized to me for the ticket. There was no plan to make money, just to stop the speeding.

Amazing how many people told me it was a speed trap and I should fight it because "it was illegal". Nothing illegal about it. I knew I was speeding. The signs were proper. There just happened to be an officer watching with a radar gun.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I suspect a motorhome or large RV signals two things: a nice large frontal area to bounce radar off; the ability to pay whatever fine is involved; and the desire to not hang around to fight the ticket in court because the person is traveling.

[Grit_dog]

You can get it reduced or court supervision or whatever, probably over the phone. Every situation is a little different. Read the fine print, make a couple calls, whatever, deal with it.
Small municipalities especially, just want the money. That’s all.
Besides a couple points on a spotless decades long driving record won’t mean anything anyway.

[JimK-NY]

Sadly you cannot beat townhall. Even more sad most local governments are flat outright corrupt at the highest levels. Local government and State and the Federal government do all sorts of things that are often illegal and unethical. There is more at the local level because it is less likely to be discovered.

There is nothing new about this.

[Jebby14]

hiring A traffic paralegal can take the fight to them without you don't the work. It will cost you but if this is a principal thing I understand. Will also keep your record clean if they are successful. They will go after the loop holes like radar calibration and such.

[tdiller]

If this is a first for you it may be worth going back to court and getting supervision. You'll be on a probationary period which when completed without any further infractions is removed from your record.