Ya'll be carefull going over the bridge, someone just may be taking your picture!

X-Chief Rose wrote:

Hello to all. I do hope everyone is well. I was ask a question on this forum concerning if the mayor ever ask me about writing tickets. I was the one who question the mayor about the tickets being issued. My answers will probably cause a few of you to become very angry. I questioned the pay to off-duty officers working and making $25.00 per hour (yes I wrote twenty-five dollars per hour) to write tickets. The program was called BLITZ. Well, the only thing that changed was the name of the program. The word BLITZ was changed to "Special Assignment" The program was still going on when I stepped aside. Sgt. Cole is (was) in charge of the program. The catch to the program was you being required to write at least 2 tickets per hour. In my 18+ years of service, that is very easy to do. As for speeding, I did intentionally sit and ran radar on the interstate and several need to slow down. (I clocked 1 in excess of 100mph, no i did not try and catch up due to the patrol car needing repairs) I was on I-24 for less than an hour to make my observation. I have my opinion on this matter and now all of you can make up your minds. Just for the record, I did not tell the mayor I didn't want the position full-time. I have ask to be considered for the full-time position. I have ask for help from some people and I will see what happens.

Blitz: An intense campaign, heavy attack

Comments from the Speed Trap Exchange

Other's Comments - 1/2008 - I lived in P.V for 15 years and the small stretch about 700 feet of 49 just off the interstate was NEVER 35 MPG. Not living in that area anymore, I was unaware that the 700 feet of 49 had changed to 35. I was pulled over and given a speeding ticket. I was in a company vehicle, single female and another COOPERTOWN B&W had to pull up behind us with all their lights flashing too. I mean really, was all that necessary? Not only was the ticket AN ENORMOUS amount of $212.50, in order to not have it land on your record and raise your auto insurance, you have to pay an additional 110.00 to attend a 4 hours Defensive Driving Course. Needless to say, I was disappointed in my old home town that they went to these measures to make $$. My class was standing room only. $322.50 times the 30 people in my class is $9,675.00. Very sad actually. I pulled over immediately and was polite, wearing my seat belt, had my registration/insurance, etc and was it really necessary to have another cop pull over just as I was signing my paperwork?? Every single time that I get off the interstate (24 exit) - it looks like a KMART BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL. They have people pulled over BOTH sides going North and South getting on and getting off interstate. I have seen them sitting on I 24 also. I paid the money, went to the class and am very glad that I don't live in that money hungry, sad, poor little town!

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The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai E. Stevenson American Lawyer, Politician.

okyedokye wrote:

Other's Comments - 1/2008 - I lived in P.V for 15 years..... I was disappointed in my old home town that they went to these measures to make $$......I paid the money, went to the class and am very glad that I don't live in that money hungry, sad, poor little town

I think this quote sums it up best. Even though she had lived in Pleasant View, she still associated the Coopertown Speed Trap with Pleasant View.
This is the black eye that Pleasant View has to endure because Mayor Crosby can't generate any money from any other means.

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The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai E. Stevenson American Lawyer, Politician.

I see Mayor Crosby has, in his arsenal of speed deterrent equipment, another black unmarked gas guzzling SUV to combat that never ending battle against those nasty speeders traveling from Pleasant View, at one mile over the historical limit of 45 MPH, across that treacherous 400 foot overpass in an attempt to get back on the interstate and be on their way to their homeward destination.

You get 'em Mayor. If I was you would charge a toll to the people who aren't speeding. Don't let anybody get over that bridge without doing their part to help fill the city piggy bank.

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The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai E. Stevenson American Lawyer, Politician.

Ticket Quotas: A ticket quota is a policy that encourages or requires officers to give out a certain number of traffic tickets regardless of how many people are actually violating the law.

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The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai E. Stevenson American Lawyer, Politician.

Are ticket quotas illegal in Tennessee? Anybody know who can cite the law on this issue?

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The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai E. Stevenson American Lawyer, Politician.

In order to write a ticket there must be p.c. ( probable cause ) , speeding is pc and speeders are easy tickets to write . If there was no speeding nor any other pc there would be no tickets written . These alleged speed trap areas are not speed traps , they are areas proven to be high traffic accident areas and requiring more patroling of the area and enforcing the speed limits to avoid accidents .

Speed Traps , i find the term funny ... 1. there are signs posted and marked 2. it is every drivers responsibility to be alert and pay attention to the signs 3. just because there was not one there years months or days ago does not mean there isnt one now . 4. stop blaming cops because you will not take responsibility for not paying attention . 5. common sense says , your coming off an off ramp , slow down , anytime your in a zone where there is on and off highway traffic there is a prepensity to have major accidents because people are not paying attention , thats why there are speed limit signs and even if there isnt , you applied for a drivers license , you got one by taking a test , if you knew all the answers then , they still apply , re-read the book and stop blaming cops for doing their job because you fail to be responsible enough to use common sense or pay attention or obey the laws .

I know a group like this who had a fit over an alleged speed trap in Spring Hill , however at no time did they ever mention the whole road is posted very obviously with speed limit signs with the ability to see them at a distance so drivers can slow down , but because they refuse to pay attention , they got tickets . responsibility people lies within your own self .

Cops do not like '' quotas '' contary to popular belief . Cops do not set the rules , those kinds of rules come from city government , not the p.d.'s theirselves . Chiefs of Police are governed ( a nice word for hogtied ) by the mayor and city council and others in doing their jobs who give out the rules for the Chiefs to follow which is very unfortunate because everything rolls downhill ...

Paying 25 an hour to write tickets on over time comes not from the Chief but from your mayor etc etc , stop blaming the cops for rules they have to follow by the very people you vote for .
How about in elections , asking serious questions and getting serious answers on matters and weighing the answers out instead of just voting because you know the name or whatever the reason . People dont ask and politicians wont tell you what you need to know only what they think you want to hear and voters are too gullible and wont ask the real questions , most rather sit back and complain because it takes no effort and then put blame on the wrong ones .

I dont agree with 25 an hour and i dont agree with '' quotas '' there are days that its too busy answering calls to make a quota , but law breakers make it easy to meet a quota , ask your mayor and city council to explain why they have a quota . Not all cities , towns , etc have '' quotas '' .

Obviously you are not taking this serious if your giving such a flippant reply to the people who have a problem with this. For instance, what is fair about a 35 mph sign just feet off the interchange to people merging in traffic, who could not see that sign properly in any first visit to the Pleasant View exit, if they are looking to avoid traffic accidents entering the hwy????? Now, will you answer me that please?

No whether it is accidently or on purpose, I don't know, your being a stooge FOR the speed trap system when you act like things are fine and people should laugh at the folks getting tickets. I know of a child of a friend who tells of looking to make sure she wasn't pulling into someones right of way when she got hers at that entrance to Hwy 49 near Jim's. While sitting in her car she is feet from the exit looking at the 50 MPH sign. She felt CHEATED her crime was 46 mph and just feet from the other sign! I feel like WE the city of Coopertown, where I live, ripped her off!


Did you see the quoto comments from the officers in the past and recently on this forum?? If so and you still feel that way you are fooling yourself if you think your being even a little bit FAIR. I had heard that a private auditor ( I thought orignally it was the State's report, they are still holding theirs for now) reported to the finance committee that we are 307$K over for the police budget for this fiscal year with months to go on that 750$K already funded. Now if that report is true what the heck is going on? WE are overspending for what reason I don't know but the end result has been to simply tarnish our town for a long, long time as a speed trap. We cannot and should not ignore the results of these actions.

The thing most people don't understand is that in order to LIVE in a FREE society we have to accept risks and quit asking the Government to protect us from ourselves and from our neighbors when it is OUR JOB not a governments job to watch out for ourselves. Heck, the world is full of crooks who want to get you to give up your freedom for their causes (see Hitlters use of gun laws for one good dose of reality). We are no longer free when people uncapable of thinking the big picture like you demand they take away your freedoms and mine too. You might want to go ahead and live in Eastern Europe or China and be done with it. Or today in England you can get a little taste of the cheating camera's the use with the 1-2 second yellow lights that catch people hitting the red that was 2 seconds from the green light. That is what Nashville, Murfreesboro and Chatannooga in TN all have been caught doing too! We are idiots if we keep asking for MORE of this style of governing!!! I hope people wake up or at least move to a country that is better suited to there neediness, those that won't more and bigger government. There will come a day when they too will live to regret it for what it did to them. Because giving of this absolute power to anyone as we do over some of these traffic laws, is training for John Q Citizen to be subserviant to the elite in the future. If your docile and meek enough they might let you live. I beleive if we don't get more involved collectively as citizens and make the changes we all should by now know need making, we are going to suffer from the rot that follows such mistaken faith in individuals. Mistaken even that those in positions of authority will do the right thing when left alone to their own means.

MorningCoffee, obviously you don't understand the situation in Coopertown and I'm tired of repeating it. We don't blame the COPS or the Police Chief, whoever he might be on any given day. We blame the mayor and his inner circle. I too don't like the description "Speed Trap" but I love "Speed Blitz". I have been trying to come up with some descriptive name other than speed trap that fully describes the gauntlet in Coopertown and the mayor did it for me through X-Chief Rose. It's no longer a trap but a blitz. By the way, do you think writing tickets serves the purpose it's designed to do?

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The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai E. Stevenson American Lawyer, Politician.

Actually i do understand but most of response was directed to someone else and those who do blame the wrong ones ... Sorry if i confused it all .

I see we have the Blitz going in full force today. Two COPS westbound had two cars pulled over. Instead of the "move over" law in Coopertown, they shpuld come up with a "stay over" law on the interstate. Riding in the right lane is not an option in Coopertown.

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The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai E. Stevenson American Lawyer, Politician.