I have had more than my share of speeding tickets over the years. I drive a fair amount, like fast cars,\u00a0and sometimes lose track of my speed or get caught having a little extra fun.<\/p>\n
For me, the occasional speeding ticket is\u00a0a cost of doing business.<\/p>\n
As a taxpayer however, It has always raised my ire to observe speed traps on state or federal freeways staffed by local municipal squads. I have a great respect for our police officers. I consider them to be just as brave and in\u00a0service to our country as anyone in the armed forces. However, I\u00a0wonder if the officers themselves are thinking<\/p>\n
“Is this what I signed up for? Traffic duty?”<\/p>\n
Yesterday I\u00a0spied a Golden Valley squad on 394 before he spied me with his laser\u00a0gun.<\/p>\n
He was\u00a0“shooting” at cars in very heavy traffic, all of which were well above the posted speed limit.\u00a0This caused an annoying and probably dangerous scenario where\u00a0drivers, having spotted him, were jamming on the brakes before the poor sap just behind them\u00a0knew what was happening.<\/p>\n
One has to wonder what is more dangerous? The\u00a0extra seven miles per hour or the tax collector<\/strike> police officer with\u00a0the laser gun.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two days ago\u00a0I observed two Minnetonka cops preying on Westbound traffic on the Crosstown, Highway 62 near 494 where the speed limit drops from 55 to 45. One with the laser gun. One primed to pounce.<\/p>\n
In the case of Minnetonka, I happen to know that at any given time there are four squads on duty in the city because I have voiced my opinion on the topic with the police chief more than once, having also seen the same thing on 494, an interstate freeway.<\/p>\n
In essence, half of our police force was preying on motorists on a state highway that happens to pass through the city. In the mean time, in almost five years living in my neighborhood, where motorists regularly travel at ten to fifteen over the limit\u00a0on a street where children are regularly seen biking, I have seen a squad patrolling only once<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Within the last ten years or so, a convenience store and a Dairy Queen have been robbed at gun point in the city of Minnetonka. In the case of the convenience store, an employee was shot and died.<\/p>\n That is not to say that either could have been prevented (unless a squad happened to be within view). Rather, it makes the point that speeding isn’t the only\u00a0crime\u00a0in these parts.<\/p>\n Shouldn’t our squad cars be conspicuously cruising our neighborhoods and business districts? Isn’t that<\/em> the highest and best use of a scarce resource? Are speeders from a different community\u00a0on a state or federal highway that happens to pass through the community a chief concern for the respective police department?<\/p>\n or…<\/p>\n Is it actually a local tax on out of town speeders in response to diminished state and federal funds coming to local police forces?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have had more than my share of speeding tickets over the years. I drive a fair amount, like fast cars,\u00a0and sometimes lose track of my speed or get caught having a little extra fun. For me, the occasional speeding ticket is\u00a0a cost of doing business. As a taxpayer however, It has always raised my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}