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Guest Editorial
                by John P. Hoeppner

Carefree’s speed trap policy is dangerous

Carefree Councilman Bob Coady in his Nov. 18 “Guest Editorial” opinion provides a warning to Carefree citizens and visitors alike. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputies working for the town of Carefree “do approach vehicles with their hand on their weapons.”

Coady, the Law Enforcement Liaison for the Carefree Council, goes on to rationalize this aggressive and intimidating “ready to draw” policy by stating that “statistics prove that traffic stops have resulted in a high number of officer fatalities.” Is Coady suggesting that Carefree is a dangerous place – perhaps a modern day Tombstone?

Tragically last year 14 officers nationwide lost their life during traffic pursuits or traffic stops (FBI report on crime statistics – Table 28). However, the data in the FBI report points out that it is five times more deadly for law enforcement officers to direct traffic than it is to make a traffic stop. For Carefree’s law enforcement this means it is more perilous to direct traffic at the Wine & Arts Festival than it is to stop a tourist for speeding.

So where did Councilman Coady unearth his statistics proving his thesis? Could it be that the councilman is prejudiced by his spouse, a retired New York policewoman? Out of the hundreds of thousands of traffic stops in the U.S. last year there were only 14 incidents resulting in officer deaths. Do you believe this low probability of risk is sufficient to justify Carefree’s and MSCO”s “ready to draw” anti-citizen and anti-tourist policy?

Coady states that Carefree issues about 65 tickets per month with annual fines totaling $269,869. These numbers don’t appear to add up either. How many tickets were written last year to extract the nearly one-third of a million dollars from the public? In April 2004 it was published that in less than a week “more than 50 speeding tickets were doled out” in Carefree.

What makes this “ready to draw” policy even more dangerous is the use of “speed traps” creating unnecessary contact between otherwise law-abiding citizens and armed deputies, “heeled” and ready to “throw down” on citizens reminiscent of the days of Wyatt Earp.

“There are no speed traps in Carefree.” That is, if you want to believe Councilman Bob Coady and Lt. David Trombi of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Both have made that claim in public. These law enforcement experts may want to check with the Arizona Department of Transportation (dot.state.az.us/ROADS/traffic/speed) and with the National Motorists Association (speedtrap.org) before repeating the “no speed traps in Carefree” declaration.

The Arizona Department of Transportation states that “A speed trap may be defined as a street or road which is wide enough, straight and smooth enough, and sufficiently free of visibility limiting obstructions to permit driving a certain speed, but where the law nevertheless calls for a much lower speed.”

The ADOT also explains the negative impact on a community regarding the aggressive enforcement of unrealistic speed limits. Unrealistic speed limits do the following:

1. They do not invite voluntary compliance, since they do not reflect the behavior of the majority.
2. They make the behavior of the majority unlawful.
3. They maximize public antagonism toward the police, since the police are enforcing the “speed trap.”
4. They create a bad image for a community in the eyes of tourists.

Just imagine a MCSO deputy working for Carefree pulling over a vehicle with a lone female driver. The deputy approaches the car with his hand on his gun informing the woman she was speeding. Next he offers her a proposition to drop the ticket in exchange for sex. If you think this could not happen in Carefree, think again because it has already happened – repeatedly.

In the past Carefree’s mayor and council have done a good job of representing the public and in most cases get it right. However, when it comes to Carefree’s law enforcement provider the council’s actions imitate that of an infatuated lover. The belief is that their law enforcement paramour can do no wrong.

Carefree must reevaluate their law enforcement and transportation policies and do so considering the best interests of both the citizens of Carefree and those of us who support their community and its businesses.