Posted on 02/28/2018 9:55:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
The Village of Brice is a dot on the map, about 64 acres. It’s home to about 112 people.
Last year, the village’s police chief said his department issued nearly 4,300 citations. The majority of them were for speeding. That’s 38 tickets for every man, woman and child who calls the village home.
NBC4 Investigator Tom Sussi reports there’s a push from state lawmakers, law enforcement and union officials to slam the brakes on the village’s three-person police force.
Ohio State Rep. Hearcel Craig (D-District 26) said enough is enough.
“It’s inappropriate and it’s something we simply cannot tolerate.”
Village of Brice Police Chief Bud Bauchmoyer told Sussi you’ve got to be driving at least ten MPH over the speed limit to get a speeding ticket in his town.
“I honestly believe we are not going overboard with what we are doing,” said Chief Bauchmoyer in a sit-down interview with Sussi.
Sussi: “Do you know how many traffic citations your department wrote last year?”
Chief Bauchmoyer: “4,270 paid citations.”
Sussi: “What does an average ticket go for?”
Chief Bauchmoyer: “$125.”
In total, that is more than a half of million dollars in citations.
“We spend a lot of time…we are known for working traffic.” Bauchmoyer said.
Sussi said, “Outsiders call it a speed trap.”
“Well, speed trap, if you look at the definition, implies that law enforcement is hiding behind something or they are changing the speeds by a mechanical means. We do neither.”
Sussi replied, “You were hiding these cameras inside traffic barrels at one time.”
“We put a traffic barrel over the camera to protect it from the weather,” said Bauchmoyer.
“That’s not sneaky?” Sussi asked.
“We were still sitting there and visible,” said Bauchmoyer.
In 53 years behind the wheel, Linda Willison told Sussi she’s received just one traffic ticket. In happened last year in the Village of Brice.
“I got to the sign that says you’re entering the 25 miles per hour zone and I hit my brakes.”
Since there is no advance notice of the abrupt speed change, the Village of Millersport councilwoman was too late. A Village of Brice police officer caught her on one of the village’s hand-held speed cameras.
“It’s a laughing stock and brings a discredit upon us as a profession,” said Columbus police officer Jason Pappas, who is also president of Fraternal Order of Police Local 9.
“We do not support them in any way, shape or form, and hope we can work with legislators and be able to remove them from being able to have any law enforcement activities out there.”
Sussi asked Chief Bauchmoyer, “What kind of crimes are you responding to?”
Said Chief Bauchmoyer, “I’ve had domestic issues, I’ve had unhappy customers, businesses.”
“When is the last time the Village of Brice arrested someone?” asked Sussi.
“I have not arrested someone since I took over as Chief,” Bauchmoyer responded.
He took over in December of 2015.
Sussi continued, “Do you think the Village of Brice needs its own police Department? “
Chief Bauchmoyer responded, “They absolutely have the right to have their own police department.”
The state’s largest police union and lawmakers said the village abused that right by issuing nearly 4,300 traffic citations last year.
“This is a disservice to the motoring public and it’s a disgrace to law enforcement,” said Rep. Craig.
Rep. Craig is co-sponsor of House Bill 125. The objective of the bill is to stop small towns and villages, like the Village of Brice, from establishing its own traffic citation fines and overseeing appeals. That would be handled by local municipal and county courts.
“It’s not good public policy and it’s not something we can certainly tolerate or support in the legislature,” said Rep. Craig.
Chief Bauchmoyer said he doesn’t tolerate speeders. He told Sussi, “If you don’t want a ticket, slow down. If you can’t slow down, don’t drive in my town.”
According to numbers provided to us by Chief Bauchmoyer, the village of Brice generated $533,750 in citation revenues last year.
The village contracts with Brekford Traffic Safety company in Maryland. Among other things, the company provides the village with speed cameras, mails out the citations and handles billing.
If the village was smart they would disband the police force and just give them jobs as village revenue collectors.
Because that is all they are, a sham police force.
So the village is supposed to let nonresidents speed through the town?
Yeah, that’s the answer.
Maybe better signage is needed but many drivers do need to slow down.
A better law would be that any town is only allowed to have a certain percentage of its income from traffic fines. Beyond that point, all money goes to the state coffers.
Ask them if they would consider installing a sufficient number of speed bumps along their “problem areas” to make them safe, and when they scoff and say “that’s ridiculous”, you know they’re running a highway robbery outfit under the color of law.
I guess the “village” is too broke to buy a 25 mph zone ahead sign. 25, really?
Do you understand what the concept of a speed trap is?
Regardless of the chiefs denials because of his perceived technicalities of difference, this is a textbook case of a speed trap.
The cops only exst to collect revenue. Another dead giveaway its a speed trap.
All the other cop shops in the area agree and declare what they are doing is wrong.
Its abuse of power. The average ticket is 125 dollars.
A 64 acre burg writes 4300 tickets a year? Speed trap.
You do not get wat a speed trap is.
Our local Rep was caught in one of these village speed traps on the way to the state capitol. He was able to get a law passed that did limit income. This was in the 1990s.
“the definition”. screw the specifics, he knows they are running a speed trap.
I hope the surronding community builds a road that bypasses this little sh1th0le village entirely and starves them of their tcket racket revenue.
I’d imagine if somebody were to start a GoFundMe account to put up billboards just outside the village of Brice saying “Notorious speed trap ahead - Outlandish $125.00 tickets - Slow down to 25 mph now!” they’d raise enough money to do it. People have always hated highway robbery.
That one cop exists in a village of 100+ is in and of itself admitting it is a speed trap. Having three cops in such a small place is complete proof.
The village I call home has 314 people as of the last Census and in my 59 years of life there has never been a cop. All law enforcement duties are handled by the county Sheriff.
I think the fact all the neighboring police forces are calling them out is irrefutable proof. Apart from the already irrefutable proof given.
I agree. Simply add “Reduced speed ahead” signs. And if people are dumb enough to keep ripping thru, then a ticket it is. If there isn’t a warning, that’s wrong to me.
I get what a speed trap is.
I also get the town was probably there before the highway.
The issue can be resolved with new speed limit signs and putting limits on the amount of money the town can keep.
Traps don’t work unless they are set off.
A sign that states “Speed limits Strickly Enforced Next 10 Miles. All Speeders will be ticketed” would solve the issue because it would no longer be a trap. Then if you go roaring through some small town full of people you consider to be so insignificant you don’t have to any concern for their safety you should be stopped and ticketed.
Run a convoy of steam powered tractors through the town for a week.
I want to know the three cops’ salaries.
In Google Maps Street view, you can see a “reduced speed 25 ahead” sign followed by One, two, three, 25 speed limit signs, going north on Brice Rd. ... through Brice, of course.
So I say fair is fair. Especially if the chief is sincere that you have to be going 35 to get snagged. ... And what’s $125 these days? Dinner for 4 at Outback, maybe. Live and learn.
Chief Bauchmoyer responded, “They absolutely have the right to have their own police department.”
Evasions don't get any clearer than that.
I destroyed one of these “sudden” speed traps (where the Speed Limit suddenly and unexpectedly is dropped very close to the higher speed as you enter the town).
I got a ticket at 1:30 AM in Bridgeville, Delaware as we were returning from Rehobeth Beach. The town’s outermost speed limit was about 35-40 MPH but then within less than a block it dropped to 25 MPH with a cop attached to it. Also, the signs were placed in a poorly lit area so that you could miss them if you were unfamiliar with the area.
Wanted to fight the ticket but they rigged how it was written and priced to discourage out of town travelers who they caught by the score, from coming back many miles to fight it in court.
Well, I paid the ticket but got my revenge by writing a column-sized letter to the state newspaper telling everyone where it happened, what happened, and that I would never come back to Delaware beaches again.
Also I would warn our extended family who had a beach house up there about the speed traps and asked others who had suffered from the “money trap” to boycott the beaches.
The newspaper actually asked me to write the letter in a column format, and they printed it across the whole page on a Thursday. My sister-in-law went through the town on Friday and the speed signs were changed (wider spacing etc), but the damage had been done.
People avoided the speed trap by slowing down before even getting near the signs, thus depriving the little thiefdom of their ill gotten gains (Alderman Brown, you did that to your own town because you were a nasty SOB, and got what you deserved).
Also, a new state bypass before the town took away about 80% of its traffic, thus reducing any chances of them getting the kind of speedtrap money they had done before.
Besides the personal satisfaction of screwing the town out of ill-gotten money, I also got some satisfaction of showing them that you don’t f*ck with a longtime investigative journalist with a degree in Police Science.
My Traffic Patrol and Administration teacher taught us well in the ways of the “money” schemes police departments used to fill county/city coffers, such as “quotas” for specific types of offenses on an assigned basis.
They also use their ticket power for minor problems such as cracked, broken or burnt-out operating lights, many of which the driver never knew about, esp. if it was the rear lights. The police have the discretion to give warnings but they don’t. Their local governments need the money to pay for their profligrate spending and boondoogle schemes.
Publicizing really blatantly unfair ticketing practices is the only way a citizen can strike back. The media is usually open to publishing a story that shows a bureaucratic unfair or unethical practice. DO IT!
Your ignorance is breathtaking! Why don’t you go over to the village and try your hand at getting through without a ticket!
How about doing the place in like they did in an old movie about truckers being abused by a little town like this. Get together a herd of 18 wheelers and go in there and drive through everything that’s standing!
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