Corrupt Police Department Disbanded In Florida

[KamaAina]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/10/05/waldo-police/

The town of Waldo, Florida is one of only two towns in the US listed by AAA as “Speed Traps,” a distinction it shares with Lawley, Florida. The bane of drivers, and their insurance companies for years, Waldo wrote a record 11,603 traffic citations last year.

This push for traffic violations resulted in almost half of the towns $1 million annual budget being covered by court fines. This should have been a red flag, but it took until several officers reported to the city council that the town’s Police Chief, Mike Szabo, has enacted an illegal traffic ticket quota, requiring them to write at least one traffic ticket per hour.

Initially, the officers attempted to resolve the issue quietly, working through the proper channels and going to the city council to have the problems addressed. Unfortunately, the culture of corruption was too embedded, an issue made clear after the cities manager, Kim Worley, broke whistleblower protection laws and informed the Chief Szabo of the concerns raised to the city council. This forced the officers to go to the media, with their complaint stating,

City manager Worley broke the trust of the concerned members and went straight to Chief Szabo. Chief Szabo then took a retaliatory stance against the members for approximately six months.

This began a month of drama for the town, as the city council attempted to resolve the issues. But last week, they had to conclude, there was no saving the police department. So, they made the decision to disband the police department. The city council now will have to face the reality that they cannot count on a half million in traffic tickets coming through their courthouse next year, a situation which they had likely encouraged, or at least turned a blind eye to. After all, the money was coming from people out-of-town, those who had few options for recourse after being written a ticket.

[EX500rider]

1. Well that's great news!

Driving up US301 just got a lot easier!

[NightWatcher]

3. The Alachua Sheriffs Dept is patrolling down there now

but they are not hiding behind the fruit stands, they're out in the open.

[Eleanors38]

21. Tom Petty's aunt is the Sheriff, I believe.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. I bet she Won't Back Down.

God I amuse myself!!!

[Eleanors38]

32. If you don't laugh at your own stuff, won't work on anyone else

[samsingh]

2. the problem of letting the police cash in on their work

[R.Quinn]

4. Excellent news.

Couldn't be happier.

[KamaAina]

5. And another one in Ohio!

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/ohio-police-department-corrupt-forced-shut/

The Public Entities Pool of Ohio is an insurance group which solely provides insurance for public entities. When an entity becomes too risky to insure, that entity’s coverage is terminated.

Originally it was said to be a lapse insurance which caused the shut down of both the Lincoln Heights fire department and the police department Thursday at 12:00 am. The fire department’s insurance was quickly reinstated however the police department is proving to be quite the uninsurable risk.

“It was a yearly renewal,” Lincoln Heights Village Manager Stephanie Summerow-Dumas said. “It was time for a renewal and (PEP) made the decision (to cut coverage) because of certain variables.”...

Nine of these lawsuits are currently ongoing which led to PEP dropping the coverage claiming that they could not keep up with the cost of all the suits.

Hopefully this trend will spread to Ferguson.

[Fla Dem]

12. I like the idea of cops carrying their own liability insurance. That would really cause

a behavioral change.

"While PEP is funded through tax payer dollars it was still able to cause a drastic reaction to police corruption. Imagine if the individual officers were forced to carry their own personal liability plans in order to be cops. Then we would see some real change."


http://thefreethoughtproject.com/ohio-police-department-corrupt-forced-shut/#6pDJpyuFer7i8OWJ.99

[yesiwasacop]

17. Any dept who would hire a person with a felony convivtion has some serious issues

prob a good thing this happened. As for the personnel issues, probably no different than a lot of places. We had cases from time to time and they were pretty much an even mix of civilian employee or cop who was the perpetrator.

The big problem any employer (much less the police) runs into is supervision failing to address an issue when it is made known. An employer is much less liable for handling something when it happens as opposed to blowing it off and letting it happen a couple times. This is esp common with sexual harassment.

[KamaAina]

24. How is that even legal?

[yesiwasacop]

25. Beats me,

the state standard is probably such that if it was a very low class, non violent or drug related felony then somehow it can be permissible. My state does not allow that at all from what I recall. They will allow some minor drug use if the last use was quite a ways back and was "experimental."

[marble falls]

6. I hope this marks a sea change in police all around the country.

[Eleanors38]

23. Remembet Selma, TX? Now traffic is such you CAN'T speed.

That one was along I-35 N. of S.A. Now, it's hard to safely go the limit.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

27. I got a ticket in Selma 35 years ago

in the rush hour traffic going to Austin from S.A. Of course everyone else was driving too fast so doing 55 was dangerous.

Since when do speed demons drive a Honda Civic station wagon? That's what I was driving.

[mcar]

7. My kid just got a speeding ticket there last month

Lousy timing on his part.

[KamaAina]

10. Class-action lawsuit?

[secondvariety]

9. This has been going on for 30 years.

Waldo, Lawtey and Hampton are all speed traps. Hampton came this close to losing their city charter because of corruption. Lawtey is the last one with a police force and hopefully not for long.


http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/09/us/hampton-florida-corruption/

[Dustlawyer]

11. Small towns in Texas got so bad they passed a law limiting how much revenue, by percentage,

Traffic tickets a city/town can generate based on their total income.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

28. Bellaire cops got busted.

Bellaire, TX, cops (a city inside Houston) were busted for stopping people on the frontage road of Loop 610. The Feds told them they did not have jurisdiction to issue speeding tickets on the frontage road of an Interstate Highway.

Also Texas passed a law somewhere back there that all the ticket revenue would go to the state, not the city. That's how they shut down speed traps.

John Oliver talked about civil forfeiture Sunday night. I don't know if they've shut down the traffic stop civil forfeiture in Texas or not. There was some tiny town in East Texas that pulled over everyone who was driving while brown or black and seized their money. I think they had a class action suit.

[Dustlawyer]

31. Wouldn't be surprised. There was a small black community on Hwy 90 called Ames. They

only had 1 cop, the Chief, and he would pull over anyone going 1 mile or mor over for the 1/2 mile length of the town. The tickets paid for the whole thing, salary, car, city government... Now they don't have a cop as far as I know, but people still don't speed through there too often!

[albino65]

13. Where's Waldo? n/t

[KamaAina]

14. DUzy!

[JimDandy]

26. Six miles ahead. Didn't you see the sign!

[NutmegYankee]

15. These corrupt speed traps should have the ultimate punishment imposed on them.

All buildings and roads funded through highway robbery should be destroyed similar to how drug cartels are deprived of their ill gotten gains. Bulldoze the police station and town hall and grind the streets back up into gravel. And then let the residents actually PAY for their town infrastructure instead of stealing it from out-of-townees.

After the first few towns I'm sure the others would get the message.

[sendero]

18. "civil forfeiture"....

.... performed by the Feds.

[yesiwasacop]

16. For those who complain about how good cops never turn-in bad cops

here you go. The rank and file turned in the chief for corruption here.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. The other town is "Lawty", not Lawley as the article states, and they are about 8 miles apart....

both on US 301, Southwest of Jacksonville and Northeast of Gainesville, on either side of the town of Starke. I pass through all 3 on a regular basis.

Starke is known for the bench put up by American Atheists in the courthouse plaza in response to a large ten commandments monument there.

Here's a thread I put up about the monuments;


http://www.democraticunderground.com/123018940

While the idea that these two towns over utilize speeding tickets to fund themselves is ridiculous, there is a normal and appropriate amount of warning that speed limit reductions are ahead. You honestly have to have your head up your ass to not notice the "45 MPH zone ahead" type signs.

There is another town on the same road, north of Waldo that annexed a portion of 301 for the sole purpose of issuing speeding tickets. Hampton, Florida had its share of troubles with state regulators and has since stopped its enforcement of a stretch of that road their cops had no business being near.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/29/us/hampton-florida-corruption-survival/

[Eleanors38]

22. Gotta a goddam ticket in Lawtey in '74. Beat it by mail!

The state investigated, and reported signage was proper; I said not when a tractor-trailer is parallel to you. The town dropped the charge and sent my $20 bond back to Austin. Waldo Flea Market is a good one: Lots of local-grown produce, some decent tools, guns, a separate head shop off to the side, boiled peanuts.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. good

[gopiscrap]

30. Fuckers

typical cops!