Kenneth City, Florida Police issue $73 ticket to woman who attempted to slow traffic in the speed trap town.

An activist promoting slower driving in a notorious Florida speed trap town was ticketed for creating a safety hazard. Kali Gillespie, 68, hoped to slow drivers outside her 46th Avenue North home by distracting them with a flashing yellow light.

Kenneth City police issued a $200 ticket to Gillespie in November last year, but she turned the light back on after a judge dismissed the case. Police later confiscated the re-installed light and issued a $73.50 citation under state law prohibiting unauthorized traffic control devices.

Gillespie is now considering whether to fight the decision. She is known to complain about lax speed enforcement, even though the city has earned a reputation for its harsh treatment of drivers.

“Kenneth City cops will pull you over for two miles-per-hour over (the limit),” a motorist warns on the national Speed Trap Exchange website. “No mercy from these guys at all.”

Source: (St Petersburg Times (FL), 4/9/2007)

Speed traps on the interstate bring a cash bonus to Washington County, Virginia cops.

After the Washington County, Virginia Board of Supervisors voted in 2004 to allow the county sheriff’s office to keep 80 percent of revenue generated from traffic tickets, the number of speeding citations written has skyrocketed. The revenue splitting arrangement allows the sheriff to direct revenue windfall toward overtime pay for deputies as well as a “salary supplement” of $2400 for those who perform well.In 2004, just prior to the new policy, the sheriff’s office wrote 1602 traffic tickets. The following year, the sheriff’s office wrote 10,018 tickets. Most of the tickets were issued to motorists traveling on Interstate 81 with the average charge being 79 MPH — just under the threshold for reckless driving under state law, a charge requiring significant court time and effort to prosecute.

The total amount taken from motorists totaled $516,072 in the first year-and-a-half under the revenue sharing deal. This has nearly doubled the county’s cut from from around $60,000 to $135,214 while allowing the sheriff to divvy up $166,000 of the bounty among his deputies.About half of Virginia counties have adopted a similar revenue sharing arrangement encouraging local police to run speed traps on interstate highways.

Source: (Bristol Herald Courier (VA), 3/5/2007)