Landon Wilburn, 11, has a future as a cop – a traffic cop.

The youngster, who used to shout at speeders to slow down as they drove through the Stone Lakes subdivision in Louisville, now has taken matters into his own hands.

Dressed in a reflective vest, wearing a bicycle helmet and armed with an orange Hot Wheels brand radar gun, he points and records the actual speed of passing traffic.

Landon also carries a flashlight with a built-in siren.

“When I saw it happening, I got the biggest kick out of it,” said resident George Ayers, 61. “People were locking up their brakes when they saw him.”

Many in the subdivision are frustrated that motorists tear through the neighborhood at 55 mph despite signs posting a 25 mph limit.

Officials said the city will install speed humps in the neighborhood if 70 percent of residents agree and are willing to put up half the money.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Every interstate speeding ticket issued since January 1 could be thrown out after a ruling in Coopertown, Tennessee.

A notorious Tennessee speed trap may find itself losing every penny collected from its major source of speeding ticket revenue. According to a city court judge’s ruling last week, because Coopertown had no jurisdiction to issue tickets on Interstate 24. Now lawyers involved in the case want to file a class action lawsuit to force the town to refund every dime it has collected in violation of the law.

Coopertown achieved national fame after its mayor, Danny Crosby, was first thrown out of office only to be reinstated upon appeal. According to court testimony, Crosby instructed police officers to “ticket soldier boys” from nearby Fort Campbell in addition to focusing on out-of-towners as well as hispanic drivers, because they were “mostly illegal, anyway”.

“These instances could be labeled as and could be said to range from bigotry, sexism or utter foolishness to insidious discrimination or the purposeful violation of the constitutional rights of others,” Judge Laurence M. McMillan, Jr. wrote in his 2006 decision reinstating Crosby. “How much of the facts of this case can be resolved as small town politics and how much may constitute the actual misuse of power is a decision to be made by this court, but in the future may be made by the voters of the city of Coopertown.”

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Officials in Beulah, Michigan improperly posted a speed limit sign for 35 mph, says Sarah Johnson.

The blue expanse of Lake Michigan looms just beyond the trees, fields and golf fairways that line Benzie County’s Sutter Road.

For motorists, it’s a stirring drive along a state-designated scenic road that between September 2006 and last week carried a 35 miles per hour speed limit posting.

Dozens of drivers who during that time traversed the nearly three-mile stretch near the northwest corner of Crystal Lake found themselves saddled with speeding tickets. Improperly so, contends one Traverse City woman.

Sarah Johnson’s research discovered that Benzie officials improperly posted the 35 mph limit, and she plans to fight a ticket recently issued to her husband.

“(The limit is) not enforceable. It wasn’t put up legally and it has no grounds,” Johnson said.

A Benzie sheriff’s deputy on July 7 ticketed Johnson’s husband for going 40 mph on the road, but she contacted the state and found the county had no authority to lower the limit from 55 mph.

The Benzie County Road Commission “misinterpreted” a Michigan Department of Natural Resources recommendation of a lower speed limit for scenic roads, said Lt. Gary Megge of the Michigan State Police traffic services unit.

State police and other agencies weren’t involved with a traffic study for Sutter Road before the change in the posted limit, Megge said, so the lower posting wasn’t binding.

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City police officers in one Florida county will have unrestricted authority to make traffic stops outside of their jurisdiction beginning Aug. 1.

Broward County’s new policing-without-boundaries plan would allow officers to patrol any of its cities, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Sheriff Al Lamberti has discreetly provided agreements to police departments giving city officers unfettered authority to enforce traffic laws countywide – even while off duty and running errands in civilian clothes.

So far, Sunrise, Coral Springs, Margate and Coconut Creek Counties have signed the plan. Fourteen cities and areas patrolled by sheriffs are also part of the policing agreement, including: Cooper City, Dania Beach, Deerfield Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, unincorporated Broward, the airport and seaport, Lauderdale Lakes, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Parkland, Pembroke Park, West Park, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Weston and Southwest Ranches.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Coral Springs Police Chief Duncan Foster said the plan will help his city get tough on belligerent and careless drivers.

“Many times we’ll have officers outside their jurisdiction and people will just be flagrantly driving by,” Foster said. “There was little we could do.”

Fort Lauderdale city commissioners are entertaining the idea and considering trying the plan out for six months, limiting police intervention to only cases of drunk and reckless driving.

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Speeding in a road construction zone in Iowa just got really expensive. Iowa drivers could pay up to $1,000 for speeding in a construction zone

The next time someone flies by those orange signs, they could shell out up to $1,000 for a ticket, thanks to a new Iowa law that took effect Tuesday.

“With all of the distractions today, work zones are more dangerous because they can be more unexpected,” said Steve Gent, director of the Office of Traffic and Safety for the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Amid distraction, fines get people’s attention, he said.

Iowa has an average of six deaths per year in work zones, Gent said. While worker safety is a huge concern for law enforcement, most of Iowa’s fatalities have been motorists, he said. The last fatality, in southwest Iowa, occurred because a semi-tractor trailer zipped through a flagger station and rear-ended several vehicles, Gent said.

Nationwide, fatalities in work zones have increased by 45 percent in the past 10 years, according to a report by the Federal Highway Administration. Driver distractions, like cell phones, iPods and other gadgets, are likely to blame in some of the accidents, Gent said.

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