Defending Speed Traps

Police annoy us all when we see them “lying in wait” just over the crest of a hill or around the bend in the road.  “It’s unfair,” we say to ourselves, “that I am being targeted when I am not really endangering anyone’s life or property.”  “Besides,” we often continue, “don’t they have anything more important to do with their time?”

I am occasionally even angered by the “police state mentality” that I perceive when I come across one of those infamous I-244 “stop everything that moves” crackdowns.  I cannot express the shock I experience when I first saw one in action – it looked like martial law had been declared on a one-mile stretch of I-244.  I was so alarmed that I actually pulled off the highway and walked out onto an overpass so I could get a look at the procession of motorcycle units that were, literally, lined up one after another on an on-ramp, waiting for the next “Go-get-em” signal from the hidden cruiser that had “lit up” some poor soul a half-mile earlier with his radar.

Nevertheless, there is more to consider. If speeding laws were actually enforced as vehemently as murder laws – we would all would be ticketed several times each day.  So I grant some leniency in my opinion of “traffic-cops.”  It’s a good thing for me that they don’t do their job any more thoroughly than they do now.  

Still, just as there are breakers of every law, there are abusers of every enforcement policy.  I would not consider a town and it’s police force to be abusers of power simply because they call a law a law, and an infraction a crime.  I would hate to think that someone might be called a child abuser because they never once allowed their child to get away with theft of candy unpunished.

So what could be the grounds for an anti-speed-trap law?  Must the State dictate that some infractions of law must go unpunished simply because certain percentage ratios on some city court clerk’s balance sheet might go askew?  Must we knowingly sacrifice law enforcement for no other reason than some enforcers may take enforcement seriously?

I deplore speed traps, and I think sting tactics are deplorable, but I think that only because I drive faster than I know I am allowed.  And for this, I expect the right to blame someone else – how about a small town police department?  Here’s the real bottom line: we dislike law enforcement because we ourselves are law-breakers – and we know it.

One alternative is not to gripe about the enforcement of laws, but to conduct a re-evaluation of whether or not we need such laws.  If the enforcement of a law is putting an excessive burden on the people, then perhaps the fault lies not with the enforcement of the law, but with the passing of the law in the first place.  And I can suggest a long list of such laws that ought to be re-evaluated.  But until then, I cannot begrudge those who are tasked with enforcing the law.  They can indeed adequately and justly cover themselves in the well-known words, “I was just doing my job.”  And God help us all if they do not.

Kirby L. Wallace
Tulsa, Oklahoma
kirby@wallaceinfo.com

Tulsa Today believes speed traps destroy public confidence in law enforcement within the State of Oklahoma.  To allow such activity demeans us, most importantly, in the eyes of our own children.  Children must trust the honor of law enforcement and officers must be worthy of such respect.  Honest peace officers should not be made to serve greedy bureaucratic pirates.  They must not participate in highway robbery.

News and Updates
Tulsa Today will continue to post stories on this issue.  We will interview State, local and national officials.  We will bring you victim stories of speed trap abuse.  We will not stop writing about this issue until it is fixed.  The Tulsa Today Editorial Board has voted this a priority.  The following are the stories posted to date.  As new stories are filed, they will be featured on the home page and added to this list.

Watts amok by Dan Wofford (updated September 14, 1998)
As highwaymen of the Middle Ages robbed unwary travelers, the Watts Oklahoma Police Department fleeces money from unsuspecting modern travelers.  This village with sales tax collections of only $1,214 (April 1998) gathered $13,023.96 per month in speed trap revenue for the 10 month period reviewed by Tulsa Today. [MORE]

State Law (This page quotes state laws)
Arkansas, Missouri and Texas law clearly identify a speed trap as an abuse of police power.  They target the percentage of revenue (from 30 to 45 percent) as the way to identify such abuse.  Watts Police Commissioner Gary Fain has said his city earns 97.5 percent of their revenue from police activity.  [MORE]

Public Comments on Speed Traps
These are some of the funniest, saddest, shameless and strangest reader comments on any issue Tulsa Today has ever gathered.  One son of a former Watts Police Chief threatens to go to war with the current force.  Several residents requested their name be withheld, but their letters leave no doubt that they believe the current police administration is evil.  From around the nation, Oklahomans are outraged.  We did get one letter is support of the Watts Police Department, but it was unsigned.  The most common opinion is that the speed trap problem must be solved. [MORE]

Interview with Commissioner Bob Ricks
KJRH Anchor Chad Nye and Tulsa Today Publisher David Arnett conducted an interview with Commissioner Ricks.  The KJRH feature ran September 9 and this file contains additional detail from that interview.  Also in a KJRH/Tulsa Today interviesw, Watts Commissioner of Police Gary Fain admitted on camera that 97.5 percent of all municipal revenue is generated by the police department.  Ricks said that if that number is true, then certainly Watts Oklahoma is running a speed trap.

With a formal complaint, Ricks says he will investigate speed traps in Oklahoma.  However, the Oklahoma Legislature has not given the department the best tools to work with to fix the problem. 

Commissioner Ricks credits Tulsa Today for bringing Watts, Oklahoma to his attention and providing legal guidelines he will ask the Legislature to enact next session. [MORE]

The strange story of Mr. Roy Banks
"I have just heard about this story last night and I'm shocked that Roy Banks would sink so low.  I would prefer that my name is withheld because I'm a police officer who has to work with Roy Banks on occasion and my department wouldn't agree with me sending this message.

If David Arnett was not informed, I think he would like to know that Roy Banks is an Oklahoma Highway Patrol dispatcher.  He is stationed out of Troop C  (Muskogee) and used to be friends with Trooper Freeman prior to this incident."  [MORE]

Muskogee Daily Phoenix investigates Watts Police
Highlighted within investigative reporter Donna Hales' piece was a report from the Council of Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) that shows the last time Watts submitted the required payment to the agency was in December of 1996.  Municipalities are required by Oklahoma Law to send CLEET $7 of each fine of $10 or more.  CLEET trains and certifies Oklahoma police officers.

Jim Tillison, a CLEET instructor in line to become the organization's general counsel November 1, said a letter is being prepared demanding Watts submit past due reports and payments.  Tillison told the Phoenix, "We can't allow it to go by."

Watts Police Commissioner Gary Fain said, "I didn't even know you had to pay CLEET."  [MORE]