Avoid Rawlins, WY

[Tetonchief]

Originally Posted by bailiff

Well I can tell you I never had a quota my entire career. If we blocked off traffic for a safety check, only the dummy's that continued to break the law got a ticket. Don't classify all Leo's by what makes the 6 o'clock news. Until you have walked in my shoes, you have nothing but your opinion.

Thank you for your input and your service. Of course there is always going to be a bad apple or two in every barrel, but the entire crop should not be condemned. If I had my way we'd have cameras like they do in Germany--get caught speeding and you get a ticket the mail, with your picture of the car and the driver. Doesn't matter who was driving the owner gets the ticket. Can't wait for that day here.

[bokobird]

Originally Posted by Tetonchief

Thank you for your input and your service. Of course there is always going to be a bad apple or two in every barrel, but the entire crop should not be condemned. If I had my way we'd have cameras like they do in Germany--get caught speeding and you get a ticket the mail, with your picture of the car and the driver. Doesn't matter who was driving the owner gets the ticket. Can't wait for that day here.

Heck, I'm waiting for the

Minority Report

That'll put a bite on crime!

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by jplante4

Ok then answer this. I'm driving down a 2 lane country road. Not thickly settled but rural. There's good visibility in all directions and the road is fairly straight with gentle curves well built up on the outside circumference of the turn. The speed limit is 50 MPH.

I cross a town line, same road, same conditions, same "transportation engineer" designed the road, the speed limit drops to 35 MPH. And there just happens to be a cop sitting there. Are you really trying to convince people that it's really all engineering?

I was born at night, but it wasn't last night.

Sorry, not drinking the kool-aid.

On non Interstate highways the cities and counties have the right to set whatever speed limit they want. And lots of times that's lower or much lower than the design speed used to build it.

[SteveLevin]

Sorry to hear about your experience. I will say, as someone that lived in Wyoming for a couple of years (and traveled through Rawlins a few times), I never had that kind of experience -- quite the reverse, really.

Our plan is the actually retire back to Wyoming in a few years because we so loved the region and the people's attitude there (for example, early on in our time there I stuck my truck in the snow and before long I had 4 different people include a state patrolman helping me out)

Steve

[cenfl]

[Mike and Cha]

First of all having spent 30+ years in Law Enforcement, retiring out as a Captain, and having spent several years as the Internal Affairs Lieutenant, what some of these posters are doing is quite normal and that is not accepting responsibility, and/or reporting things that are not factual that they may have heard from a friend of a friend of a friend ect. Often times when people who make false claims are confronted with the truth via electronic devices, physical evidence, or video/audio recordings their simple answer is "oh well", when they realize the complaint or statement they made up was frivolous. And the Officer cannot seek a civil action for the complaint as the courts have ruled that they don't want to discourage people from complaining so that Law Enforcement can be as transparent as possible.

Sorry for the long intro to my point here but I too find it offensive when people don't respect or appreciate Law Enforcement but will call them in a heartbeat when they need their problems solved. And the Cops will always roll to help, because that's what we do, and wouldn't think twice about jeopardizing their own life to protect yours.

I can't believe that people of the caliber on this forum really believe that Cops have the time or desire to sit and wait for out of state MH owners to roll thru their town just so they can give them a ticket for something they didn't do. I find that very disappointing. There's the letter of the law and the spirit of the law and how that gets exercised is sometimes directly related to your actions and attitude. Sure there are "bad apples" in every agency and trust me they get weeded out, but by and far Officers in the US are far better trained and disciplined than any Country in the world. You just don't know how safe you really are when it comes to dealing with Law Enforcement in this country.

And the Op admitted they were speeding, and probably in an area where they have had problems/accidents. Bigger vehicles are going to be targeted when speeding as the result of their actions is probably more dangerous than a smaller car, ie braking distance ect. To the Op I would have a serious look at your insurance company if 1 speeding ticket in 40 years, gets your rates jacked up. If it were a red light maybe, or speed caused the accident probably, but not just speed.

I too will probably get some pushback or snide remarks, but it will be worth the fact of speaking the truth. Just go out and enjoy your MH'ing experience, drive safe and follow the rules, and you will have a great time.

[ladagobago]

I have many relatives that were or are LEO's. I thank them all good enforcement folks for keeping us safe from Criminals.

I also think, many people are filled to the brim with over zelious selective enforcement. It is to bad this thread went from a simple statement to judging individual actions. Here in NJ they got rid of RED light cameras because people got fed up with lousy enforcement which got down to how many seconds someone stopped before turning right on red. A class action law suit even sent money back to folks who got tickets.

Now the LEO's want everyone who has a private surveillance camera to register their private systems with the cops and if they don't they get a ONE HUNDRED dollar fine. Tell me that is not MONEY MONEY MONEY. Many of these system would fail any technical interrogation by a good lawyer on technical data issues in a trial setting.

Sure there are lots of great people enforcing our laws but I also think there are people who enforce the law also break the law and at time feel above the law. When ever I see someone driving well over the speed limit, they have a Sheriff placard or FOP sticker of licence plate of fire police etc. Never saw one of them pulled over yet. Just my opinion.

[jplante4]

I think the spirit of my post had been misinterpreted. It's not the cops, the the laws. The example I cited above (not hearsay but fact in a couple of small towns I drive through regularly) is a perfect example. Someone of authority, a traffic engineer, police chief or local official in Town A decided that 50 MPH is a safe speed on this road under ideal conditions. If the speed drops on the same road in the same area, no school zone, business district or thickly settled area, only because the road has entered Town B, nothing safety wise has changed. You cannot pull the "public safety" card out here. It's the same road!!! The only change is the town line. So you have to ask, why did the speed limit change? If it had nothing to do with public safety, and there's a cop sitting there writing tickets to normally law-abiding citizens whose only crime that particular day is failure to pay attention, you have to ask why? If not public safety, then what?

When I come to a congested area, school zone, business district, I tend to slow down regardless of what the speed limit does. Likewise, if the speed limit drops for no obvious reason, I may not. If me getting a ticket or not relies on the humanity of a law enforcement officer, there is something wrong. LEOs are human, they have good an bad days, and on a bad day you may get a ticket for 2 over the speed limit just because you're from Georgia and can afford a motor home.

[Mike and Cha]

Originally Posted by ladagobago

I have many relatives that were or are LEO's. I thank them all good enforcement folks for keeping us safe from Criminals.

Sure there are lots of great people enforcing our laws but I also think there are people who enforce the law also break the law and at time feel above the law. When ever I see someone driving well over the speed limit, they have a Sheriff placard or FOP sticker of licence plate of fire police etc. Never saw one of them pulled over yet. Just my opinion.

See there's what I'm talking about an assumption( and one made by many). Any Cop worth his salt would not put a sticker like that on his personal vehicle for the safety of him and his family. Those stickers have made vehicles be targeted by criminals as they think they belong to Law Enforcement personnel.

The ones who usually put those stickers on their cars usually got them at some safety show or thru some donation to LE. And you are correct they probably do so because they think they will get out of a ticket. They get pulled over all the time and ticketed, just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I have personally cited many with those stickers/placards.

You are correct, everyone including Cops generally will violate the Vehicle Codes at some point, and most commonly it's speed. And they do get tickets too, the only thing is they get reported to their PD and then they get in trouble at work, so they in essence get double jeopardy if they get a ticket. The normal citizen just has to pay their ticket.

I know the OP didn't post his comment to get it to this point. But the bottom line is just follow the rules, be safe driving our big rigs as getting anywhere quicker is not worth getting in an accident in one of these things, and if you do take a chance in whatever vehicle you drive just be willing to accept the consequences and chalk it up to experience.

[road dogs]

A number of years ago my late wife and I were driving through Carbon County, WY on the way back from visiting her ill mother in Colorado. She was driving a little over the speed limit on I80 near Rawlins when she was pulled over by a state mountie. He advised her she was speeding, wrote her a ticket for 8mph over and told her there were three ways to handle it: Appear in court in a month or so, mail in the fine or pay the fine directly to him. She chose the last option but only had travelers checks (yes, it was that long ago) and was $10 short of the fine. The officer said "close enough", took the signed travelers checks and off we went. The ticket never showed up on her record. I suspect there's an old retired WY state policeman living the good life somewhere in Hawaii. True story, my wife is no longer alive to corroborate the story although she was angry about it until I reminded her the ticket didn't get posted on her record and she had also gotten a speeding ticket 2 weeks before that in Utah on I80 which DID show up.....