The following is an article I came across on an Associated Press feed:

The mayor of Warren, Michigan says a warning wasn’t enough after he was stopped for speeding. So he asked for a ticket instead — and got it. Warren Mayor Jim Fouts was pulled over Monday on the way to City Hall for going 45 mph in a 40 mph zone. The officer told him to watch it next time.

Fouts says he was uncomfortable the entire day with just a warning, thinking it might be construed as favoritism. So he called the deputy police commissioner and demanded the ticket.

Police delivered it to Fouts’ office and Fouts paid the $100 fine.

Fouts told The Detroit News that he “had to set an example.”

He had to “set an example”?! An example of what? How to be a numb nut? He was doing 5 mph over the limit. A warning is what was appropriate; and, he demanded a ticket. The cop probably didn’t even know he was the mayor.

Romulus, Michigan police officers are being so aggressive that another police agency is warning drivers to be wary of a so-called “speed trap.”

Detroit Metropolitan police are outing Romulus officers who are pulling over drivers for speeding in the area of Interstate 94 around the airport.

“Under the bridge might be an unmarked Dodge Charger that’s there to nail you,” said airport spokesman Mike Conway. Conway said Romulus police are pulling over record-number of drivers in an effort to raise cash.

“To us, it’s more of a revenue generation for the city of Romulus than traffic safety enforcement,” he said. Conway said court records show the city has written ten thousand tickets since July 1st.

The Wayne County Airport Authority has even begun circulating fliers that read, “The Romulus Police Department has dramatically increased its patrols at the entrances and exits to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, using unmarked vehicles. Please be careful to observe all speed limits and traffic laws.”

Airport officials said they plan on turning the flier into a billboard and will leave it up until the Romulus police stop targeting those entering and leaving the airport.

The airport police chief sent out an e-mail to officers telling them to park in front of a Romulus police patrol car if you see one and turn on overhead lights to warn drivers to slow down.

Romulus police said they are just doing their job and patrolling all of Romulus, including the area around the airport. “We’re going to be looking at those areas to make sure people are not speeding, to target traffic enforcement efforts in those areas to maintain safety and keep people safe on the roads,” said Romulus Lt. John Leacher. “That’s our goal.”

Source: www.clickondetroit.com

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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