Waldo Fl. speed trap update

[Laman]

I don't have the link to the story but the famous (or infamous) Waldo, Fl. police dept. was dis-banded by the city council on Tuesday. The dept. is still under investigation by the FDLE. Reason given was lack of funds, funny since the fines levied by the police accounted for a significant amount of the city budget.

[fla-gypsy]

I actually enjoyed the speed limit changes, it kept me awake. Hwy 301 is one of the most boring roads on the planet.

[wilber1]

Really, there should be enough warning of a speed limit change to slow without leaping on the brakes if you are doing the existing limit and it is not down hill.

[spoon059]

2012Coleman wrote:

spoon059 wrote:
More importantly, if I am a "know nothing" yet have managed to never get a ticket driving through Waldo...

I said it in the last thread, and i'll say it again in this one...

Gotta love all the ignorant comments from people who have never been through the town and experienced 6 limit changes in under 2 miles.

Reading comprehension skills are great to have, they can prevent you from eating crow. Please read the quoted section that I left up above. I've driven that stretch of road at least 8 times in the past 5 years. No tickets. That short fat pedal next to the long skinny pedal is the BRAKE pedal. It works wonders for slowing down. That gray matter between your ears is your BRAIN. It works wonders for simple comprehension... such as reading a speed limit sign or reading the text that you qouted without reading.

[2012Coleman]

jplante4 wrote:

It surprises me that the RVer crowd, striving to live somewhat "off the grid" and probably more libertarian than most groups, has anyone that would post "Just don't speed".

You must not read all of the forums on this board...

[wilber1]

From the posted article it seems this whole thing came about because 5 officers were fed up with the way their department was acting and said, enough. That doesn't sound like a case of "just don't speed" to me.

[wa8yxm]

There are several ways to get a speeding ticket when you BELIEVE you are legal

one is the old "Hide the low MPH sign behid a tree or bush" trick (Works for stop signs and no parking signs too) I have been the victim of one of those (parking) Trust me the only way to see the no parking sign was to stand with your toes touching the post and look nearly straight up. (It was behind a canopy) they moved it DOWN about a foot after I complained so it could be seen.

Suddenly dropping from 55 mph to say 35 mph also gets a lot of folks.

I once got a ticket for disregarding a "No Turn On Red" sign, never mind that county and yet to erect the sign (took 'me 3 weeks after the judge dismissed)

I once got a ticket for failure to signal a turn... Problem was.. I DID NOT TURN. (Same officer as the last ticket).

And we have all heard of how to make a radar read 90 when you were going 40.
(I think it was 60 minutes, Dilbert's favorite TV show, that showed that one).

So simply obeying the speed limit will not always do the job.

IF it is a town AAA underlines in red... Simply avoid it. IF enough people avoid it, when the town father see all that lovely tourist tax money passing them by,,, They will fix the problem, as has happened here.

But then I grew up in a town which had a Justice of the Peace who resigned when he heard the auditors were coming a-calling.... And for good reason too.. Last I knew (I suspect now he is deceased, Cause: Old age) but last I knew he was still working for the government,, cleaning toilets and refilling tissue dispensers and mopping floors and emptying trash cans. (School janitor)

[Dog_Folks]

az99 wrote:

jplante4 wrote:


It surprises me that the RVer crowd, striving to live somewhat "off the grid" and probably more libertarian than most groups, has anyone that would post "Just don't speed".

There is always one in every crowd. 🙂

I would get rid of all the extra cops and cars that are not needed to actually cover an area. If they have time to just harass the citizens and collect revenue by writing speed trap tickets, we don't need them.

Imagine going thru the rigorous police academy training to be sent out to sit and write tickets in a designed speed trap all day.

Just another waste of taxpayer money.

In the news and about 6 threads above you reports the police force has been disbanded as of October 01.

[JiminDenver]

It seems there is a place like this everywhere. Here we call it the Denver metro area and my drive into work sees at least 5 speed traps. Add in the photo radar vans and stop light cameras, (don't touch the cross walk when you stop) and you run the gauntlet daily. Many of the smaller cities make a fair amount of their revenue off of traffic but even then there are exceptions.

Mountain view is only 12 blocks and has 9 officers. They will find something to write you up for no matter what. There are billboards just outside of town warning the unwary and even the news has run stories on it.

Morrison is a small town in the mountains with a few officers and one car. Well that was until they annexed a portion of the highway outside of town for the sole purpose of placing a patrol car there and collecting. They now have patrol SUVs and Chargers, the police force is much bigger too.

It's easy to say just do the speed limit but if they want to write you up they are going to find a way to do it.

[noplace2]

az99 wrote:
There is always one in every crowd. 🙂

Now there are at least 4 of us.

[jnharley]

I wish there was more traffic enforcement. Drivers are so unsafe. They pass on double yellow lines, blind curves, blind hills, on the shoulders of narrow 2 way roads etc. and they put us all at risk. It is not that difficult to obey the rules of the road including speed limits. Not a popular opinion though.

[az99]

jplante4 wrote:


It surprises me that the RVer crowd, striving to live somewhat "off the grid" and probably more libertarian than most groups, has anyone that would post "Just don't speed".

There is always one in every crowd. 🙂

I would get rid of all the extra cops and cars that are not needed to actually cover an area. If they have time to just harass the citizens and collect revenue by writing speed trap tickets, we don't need them.

Imagine going thru the rigorous police academy training to be sent out to sit and write tickets in a designed speed trap all day.

Just another waste of taxpayer money.

[jplante4]

Maine state police sit on the drop from 65 to 55 in Portland every weekend. There are plenty of revenue related "safety" traps in the country. I make it a habit of setting my cruise control to 9 over the limit and they usually don't bother me. In once instance, I didn't catch the drop in Portland and got a ticket for... 74 in a 55.

It surprises me that the RVer crowd, striving to live somewhat "off the grid" and probably more libertarian than most groups, has anyone that would post "Just don't speed".

[monkey44]

We live in Jacksonville, and travel that section for visits with family in Tampa area and other business.

It's long been both a joke and a horror that cops hide in bushes and prey on unsuspecting motorists. Doesn't mean we all should suddenly rush out and "speed" thru Waldo, but at least now we know the lurking officers are found out and will pay the penalty for what they promoted.

We've been traveling down Hwy 301 for almost fifteen years, and never got a ticket. But we also knew about it all this time, and so we watched for the speed signs.

I can remember another instance similar to this in western NY, where the speed sign was 45 mph, and you rounded a bend coming off a winding, casual roll down out of the foothills and suddenly there sat a 20 mph sign and a sheriff ...

YUP, got me for 35 in a 20 zone because I couldn't get slowed fast enough. I had a 'discussion' with the sheriff and he got very threatening, so I backed off. Fine was a "mail in" $100 ... which I sent because it was too far and expensive to come back and "trial it?" But I did write a "special letter" to the judge about it ... never heard back, of course. So, Waldo ain't the only place this happens, for sure.

[az99]

Big Katuna wrote:
And the unreasonably low limit 35 MPH. It's six lanes thru there and many similar towns have 40-45 mph limits.

Not only that but the way it is done. It goes from 65 to 35 in a very short distance.

That stretch of road was setup for 1 thing only. A speed trap. There is no safety reason for that speed.

I have been thru there when there were 3 cop cars plus extra cops on foot just pulling cars over.

They were not police to Protect and Serve. They were just glorified tax collectors.

[az99]

Here is another one. It is long overdue.

Waldo is one of the most famous speed traps in the nation.

I thought some might enjoy this news item.
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Good things come to those who wait. And undoubtedly, some of you have been waiting for decades... Believe it or not, the Waldo City Council has voted 4-1 in favor of disbanding its department, effective Oct. 1.

According to the Gainesville Sun, the Mickey Mouse police department that has been allowed to operate in Waldo for decades, doing little beyond operating speed traps and writing tickets as rapidly as possible, is finally coming to the end it has earned. Waldo has long carried the notoriety as a speed trap with black and white patrol cars working busy stretches of U.S. 301 and State Road 24, but that began to change last month when its last police chief, Mike Szabo, was suspended pending the results of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation.
On Aug. 26, five Waldo officers revolted against Szabo and Cpl. Kenneth Smith with a presentation before the City Council that was rife with allegations that included an unlawful ticket quota, deceptive court appearances and unethical evidence storage.
Shortly after the presentation, Waldo City Manager Kim Worley also suspended Smith, with the launch of a second FDLE investigation. Both Szabo and Smith later resigned.
In the absence of a chief, Worley signed a monthlong contract with Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell on Sept. 3 to receive the temporary services of her training lieutenant, Steve Maynard, whom she temporarily promoted to captain for the assignment.
Last week, Darnell told Worley she would not extend the contract, which apparently left Waldo with little option but to close its police department.
During the Tuesday night meeting, Worley said an audit of the department conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement determined that the city would need to drastically update its storage facilities and computer systems to keep up with standards required for criminal investigations.
"The cost is just too high," Worley said.
Waldo City Councilwoman Carolyn Wade was reluctant to vote in favor of the police department closure, but said she understood it was inevitable. Conversations with State Attorney Bill Cervone led her to believe it was the only decision to save the city from more bad publicity, she said. Wade said Cervone told her that if the city chose to keep the department open, he would bring a case before the Alachua County grand jury, and it would return with a humiliating presentment.
"Too much has gone too far, and I don't think we can recover," Wade said.
After the meeting, Waldo police Officer Brandon Roberts — who led the Aug. 26 presentation that unveiled the unlawful ticket quota — unpinned his badge and smiled.
He said that the resignations of Szabo and Smith were worth the loss of his own job.
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