Fun Fact: The chief of police failed to report his own DWI on his application when applying for the job. Also, you can't tell me the Mayor or Commissioners were not in on it either. In the interview, the mayor said that since everyone was fired, the investigation into any wrongdoing has ended. How convenient.
@billyboy969
9 ай бұрын
Bet you are RIGHT!
@chuckybang
9 ай бұрын
Kinda like any investigation into police conduct. If they resign, the investigation gets dropped.
@mayoluck
9 ай бұрын
Well the State Attorney is aware and being contacted so we will see.
@machintelligence
9 ай бұрын
Remember, this is Texas. They are impeaching the Attorney General for corruption.
@wtimber
9 ай бұрын
There are also some places who love their police chief and think they do a great job like Sheriff John Allen from Albuquerque, NM or Sheriff Grady Judd from Polk County Florida. Both are American Patriots.
@Voltaic_Fire
9 ай бұрын
I'd be willing to bet that having all those cops actually raised the crime rate.
@voiceofreason-ct1nm
9 ай бұрын
Yes.. because the cops were abusing rights all over the place
@christophersoward2895
9 ай бұрын
Probably because they were all on a traffic stop
@sdbackout5247
9 ай бұрын
Job security.
@AndrewBlacker-wr2ve
9 ай бұрын
Sure. Look at all the crimes cops commit engaging the public on a daily basis.
@frankwilliams5934
9 ай бұрын
It is a speed trap. I used to live near there and had to drive through there regularly.
@ianbattles7290
9 ай бұрын
Imagine getting pulled over and/or arrested *by someone with a longer criminal record than you...*
@glintinggold
9 ай бұрын
I don't have to imagine, I know for a fact all police are always violating their oath of office. They are actually unconstitutional themselves by their very existence ("standing army").
@22smcrrider96
9 ай бұрын
I think that's actually becoming common lately
@miketyson1717
9 ай бұрын
Nevermind their criminal record... how many crimes have they committed? Police are often the most violent criminals in the community, yet they are never brought up on charges
@tissuepaper9962
8 ай бұрын
@@miketyson1717 not to mention they're by far the most aggressive, inconsiderate drivers on the road. never in my life have I observed a police officer driving at or below the speed limit, except when constrained by heavy traffic.
@Lydia.LaMar0
6 ай бұрын
@@22smcrrider96its been going on in Chickasha Ok since the 70's
@fleebee3639
9 ай бұрын
There is no way that the mayor and the city council did not know what was going on. They should also be held accountable.
@Sondan1988
9 ай бұрын
They should also be held accountable ? What did they do that was illegal ?
@JohnS-il1dr
9 ай бұрын
@@Sondan1988knowingly allowing a revenue shakedown of the small town. It would be like me knowing that my spouse is ab*sing my kid but i chose to ignore it. I would be held accountable
@Sondan1988
9 ай бұрын
@@JohnS-il1dr I get your emotional response but I am asking for an actual law they broke ?
@digitalcurrents
9 ай бұрын
@@JohnS-il1dr The cops didn't do a revenue shakedown of the small town. They shook down drivers passing by the town and ended up bringing over a million in revenue into the town for its 250 residents annually. The cops were great for the town!
@stevebell4906
9 ай бұрын
They are that is what elections are...
@KissxMyxShotgun
9 ай бұрын
Why does a town of 250 people need 50 cops? Absolutely ridiculous.
@kenbrown2808
9 ай бұрын
sounds like they have a highway with a speed trap crossing the city limits.
@americandeathtrip6881
9 ай бұрын
yup@@kenbrown2808
@gearframe87
9 ай бұрын
To engage in racketeering. Like most police departments do
@dorbie
9 ай бұрын
It needed them to collect revenues from motorists to fund their podunk PD.
@martinswiney2192
9 ай бұрын
This happens when the feds give small towns ridiculous grants to hire cops.
@starrider4878
9 ай бұрын
The town is finally safe from the domestic terrorists
@ighdesigns
9 ай бұрын
Good point.
@davemi00
9 ай бұрын
Ha, exactly.
@HariSeldon913
9 ай бұрын
Sounds like the town itself was fine, it was just anyone who tried to pass through. A friend of mine used to live about an hour south of Omaha, Nebraska. I drove out to visit him and my IL plates got me a police escort from the very edge to town to his driveway and the cop even parked at the end of his driveway until my friend came outside and waved at him. We used his car for all driving while there and had no police escorts.
@rogerszmodis
9 ай бұрын
Most domestic terrorists in the US come from the south so I doubt it.
@ianbattles7290
9 ай бұрын
@@HariSeldon913I'm guessing that town doesn't rely on tourism dollars...
@tayzonday
9 ай бұрын
The Institute for Justice should identify the ticket recipients as a plaintiff class and get their money back from the government.
@AliceR27
9 ай бұрын
They spent all their money on cop salaries!
@gasad01374
9 ай бұрын
why? they were actually speeding and actually broke the law. just because the cops were doing illegal shit on the side doesnt mean that all the actual criminals should now be reimbursed for something they actually did. you know the simple solution? dont drive above the speed limit, and stop endangering everybody around you.
@smokedbeefandcheese4144
9 ай бұрын
@@gasad01374 We cant know because they hired corrupt cops all the stuff they got needs to be thrown out if they were bad we cant trust their charges
@scslre
9 ай бұрын
@@gasad01374the cops doing the illegal things were being honest about this one thing, i swear
@chaseviking5096
9 ай бұрын
Good luck on that. You'd spend more money fighting to get your money back from a wrongful than the ticket coast. If you are ok with that then do so but do many people aren't willing to lose more cash.
@berkleyman1
9 ай бұрын
What's the bakery going to do without all those cops to sell doughnuts to?
@sureshmukhi2316
9 ай бұрын
They'll find ways to fill that hole. 😄
@hateca1
9 ай бұрын
I once had a supervisor tell me during a performance review that I hadn’t written enough traffic citations that month, my response was how many should I write? He said he couldn’t tell me that because that would indicate an illegal quota. Well, I said, if you can’t tell me how many to write, you can’t tell me I didn’t write enough. That subject was never brought up again. 🤣
@losttownstreet3409
9 ай бұрын
If you write fewer tickets then every else: it still needs an investigation: It's statistics. I'd done one investigation of this type and the correlation was about 5% (nearly non-existent); nothing beats math, but it wasn't what my superior wanted to hear. If you police locations where nothing happens: why pay the money: you want everything in a normal distribution, even crime as every thing else is a bit fishy (you could calculate normal distribution over tickets on federal level, and you catch every fishy town)
@troystallard6895
9 ай бұрын
I remember years ago when the Los Angeles Police Department was accused of having quotas for writing tickets, and its chief indignantly replied, "we don't have quotas; we have performance standards!" 🤣🤣🤣
@EnthalpyAndEntropy
9 ай бұрын
@@losttownstreet3409nothing beats math? You sound like one of my clients. A calculator is only as good as the man using it. Garbage in invariably leads to garbage out.
@tomhenry897
9 ай бұрын
Bet you got passed over for promotion
@eightysea3780
9 ай бұрын
If this wasn't a police department, it would be money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering. They need a full investigation into where all of the fine money ended up.
@JokingThief
9 ай бұрын
Make no mistake; it's _still_ money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering, just under color of law.
@cdrone4066
9 ай бұрын
Paying for all those cops salary, obviously.
@uarenothelping3128
9 ай бұрын
Yup City counsel Mayor.. All part of the grift.
@annana6098
9 ай бұрын
Small towns with obscene numbers of traffic fines are funding the entire town's budget with the ticket money. The money went into everything the town spent money on, from the local politician's wages to any local festivals or upkeep of town property. Oh, and especially to pay all of those cops, that's ridiculous.
@EarnestWilliamsGeofferic
9 ай бұрын
I love when Steve starts laughing a joke he hasn't told just yet.
@kele1264
9 ай бұрын
I'm terrified for the well-being of that investigative reporter and the mayor. Retaliation is real.
@daverobson3084
9 ай бұрын
Its my opinion that the chief here wasn't just ignoring the "questionable" history of the officers that he was hiring, he was specifically seeking out cops with bad records that he could use for his plans. Ones that needed the job or he knew would do whatever he wanted, without any reluctance to perform questionable actions for him. He was building an army of the desperate and the criminal for what was almost surely nefarious goals.
@jillianb1744
9 ай бұрын
They needed a seconds chance…. To do his bidding apparently.
@joelmartin2549
9 ай бұрын
So do you think he had future more nefarious plans that this news stations investigation thwarted?
@heraldo2
9 ай бұрын
Spot on
@no_peace
9 ай бұрын
That's what i said. They don't think rules should apply to them. He wanted a bunch of bad cops
@DerekHubbard
9 ай бұрын
I doubt it's anything so comic-book-villain. I think he was recruiting cops who had horrible reputations to be minimally employed by the city so that they could demand huge hourly wages as rent-a-cops and then feed a little kickback to the chief. He was probably just run-of-the-mill corrupt, running a little racket.
@SuperChicken666
9 ай бұрын
I've been following this story. The mayor apparently didn't know there were so many police officer and he was "shocked" that any of them had bad records. But don't worry. He has now investigated the situation so the media and the state can cease any investigations. He has it all under control now. Nothing to see here. ❤❤❤
@mayoluck
9 ай бұрын
Yea he is sol bc the States Attorney will be reviewing this case.
@rherman9085
9 ай бұрын
He's politician. All cops & politicians lie. He also said the town's primary focus was curbing drugs not speeders. All he was doing was CYA.....How could he not know when they revenue the cops brought in was a million dollars...
@56words
9 ай бұрын
@mayoluck Sorry to inform you the AG of Texas is in the middle of being impeached for corruption. Seems like he'd be just fine with a corrupt police dept.
@JP-gi7dw
9 ай бұрын
Yup.. it's just another day in America.. 😂😂
@fs127
9 ай бұрын
I don't think it would be much of an exaggeration to say the number of these corrupt cop haven departments number into the hundreds. This one is kind of the bog standard way they come around. You get a corrupt big city cop coming to a small town and lubes his way into a leadership role. After a bit they come up with a neat scheme to generate funds so they can expand their department and soon enough they're dragging over every friend of theirs that was allowed to quit before the department terminated them.
@jamesdrake2378
9 ай бұрын
The Mayor is doing a fine job pretending he was not aware of what was going on. One could think that he may have been curious about the huge increase of money from fine and fees.
@MrTXForester
9 ай бұрын
That town has been an over-patrolled speed trap for over 30 years. He knew.
@scotcoon1186
9 ай бұрын
Look at the city limits. They've annexed all the county and state roads. But few homes or businesses.
@Joe-lb8qn
9 ай бұрын
A friend of mine once encountered this type of situation. Travelling through a small town in middle-of-nowhere she was stopped for speeding. The scam was she had to appear in court the next day which meant staying in a motel that night and buying a meal in a restaurant that evening. She later realised that was how the town got much of its income.
@anarky4711
9 ай бұрын
The (former) chief had an active warrant out of Florida for failure to appear on a DUI charge. He left that off his resumé. That's a crime, too.
@Hemuro4ever
9 ай бұрын
Which crime is that?
@anarky4711
9 ай бұрын
@@Hemuro4ever failure to disclose prior arrests is a punishable offense according to the disclaimer on the copy of his application that the journalist showed the chief. That's when the chief started sweating through his shirt.
@blasternine8814
9 ай бұрын
So, Florida Man went to Texas...
@paulreider8321
9 ай бұрын
when the reporter brought up the DUI chief knew his goose was cooked, I'd like to know just who in town government approved all this police officers in the first place and what their relationship is to the chief. That's where the real corruption is...@@anarky4711
@tvc1848
9 ай бұрын
@@Hemuro4ever Tampering With a Government Record.
@StevenEverett7
9 ай бұрын
Lets not forget to mention that the police chief forgot to mention on his application that he had previously been arrested for DUI.
@bluefox115
9 ай бұрын
I thought it was a active DUI warrant from another state
@shellynsnowden6733
9 ай бұрын
@@bluefox115yes! That's what I came back to mention. He has an active warrant out of Florida!
@L3adb3lly
9 ай бұрын
pretty sure that's what prompted the inquiry. The new mayor saw that and then realized that they had a bunch of cops on payroll doing administration stuff.
@tvc1848
9 ай бұрын
@@bluefox115 I think that is correct, out of Florida.
@shawnaseverinski3219
9 ай бұрын
Let's not forget the case is STILL active, he failed to appear and there's arrest warrant
@watching95
9 ай бұрын
Kendleton, TX was the big speed trap south of Houston, when I was a kid. A motorist contacted his insurance company to see how the ticket would affect his rates. The insurance company had no record of it. Ultimately, this sparked an inquiry that revealed the city wasn’t doing the required revenue share with the state by not filing the tickets. Their police department was shut down for years.
@cmichaelhoover8432
9 ай бұрын
Back in the '70s, I purchased my first house in Virginia, in a small town of 400 people. We had a single police officer who was the biggest cost to the town budget, but also was the biggest contributor to the town budget. A US highway ran through the town and it happened to be on the route to the Skyline Drive from Washington DC and environs. The Officer would write tickets for speeding near the town line where the speed limit went from 55 mph to 35 mph. With such a low population, it was hard to get people to run for the town council, and I got drafted by the Mayor who conducted a write in campaign to get me on the council, (at not quite 30 years old). About a year later, the Police man wrecked the police car. I was on the Police committee, and managed to persuade the others to get rid of the Police and let the County Sherriff handle law enforcement. I was finally to meet people without having to hear how corrupt my town from people who had been ticketed!
@kencramer1697
9 ай бұрын
A couple details that were missed. 38 of those officers were never in the City. They worked from home "collecting" the fines. Their full time status with the police department allowed them to have 2nd jobs that served more as their primary job doing security. A sworn officer with "arrest powers" is a higher rate than a standard security guard. So you didn't have 50 cops patrolling this small town. This setup also allowed the Chief to keep these officers off of the pay roll and hide them from the city counsel. To the counsel it looks like they had a chief and 11 officers (which is still way too many for a small town) but there is no detail on how many of the 11 officers were part time or reserve that worked in town. It could be that they have the Chief, two or three full time officers and then 7 or 8 part time / reserve officers. That to the counsel would look normal.
@wcraiderevo8078
9 ай бұрын
Maximum needed is four including the chief.
@Caderic
9 ай бұрын
"They worked from home "collecting" the fines. " How does that work?
@godessofthemoon67
9 ай бұрын
😮
@veramae4098
9 ай бұрын
No way this could look normal. Half the city's income was from traffic fines / not showing up at court / etc. How could the city miss the fact their "police force" was making so much money for the city?!
@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb
9 ай бұрын
The town council knew full-well what was going on. 250 person town had $1M in traffic fines. No town that size has revenues 1/10th that size. So what happened to all that money? Lots of folks will end up behind bars...
@jess_o
9 ай бұрын
Now do the person who hired the chief
@warrmalaski8570
9 ай бұрын
He lost the election two years ago.
@therealtimc08
9 ай бұрын
They were there in part to increase revenue. Coffee City is just across a lake from a highly populated county that was dry. People would drive across the bridge to get liquor and it created a lot of revenue. When Smith County began allowing alcohol sales the Coffee City revenue dried up and apparently this was one of their solutions. The corruption was just icing on the cake.
@LD.50
9 ай бұрын
Cant those are elected officials
@JayEmAy
9 ай бұрын
It's worth noting that reportedly the entire city council has turned over since the police chief was hired. That is the mayor and council that fired the guy are not the same people who hired him.
@billyboy969
9 ай бұрын
@@LD.50who backed his campaign ?
@omegaudio
9 ай бұрын
My Late Father was the Mayor of Coffee City TX until he passed from a stroke. He replaced a very corrupt mayor and city council, that was using city funds for personal gain. During his holding office they had about 12 reserve officers and one active police chief. They did strictly monitor the highway through town for speeders. After his passing things changed and went down hill.
@trinsit
9 ай бұрын
What makes me curious is that the officials that fired the cops, did it while stopping the investigation into these cops.
@michaeltelson9798
9 ай бұрын
Back about 40 years ago, a friend told me a story about a speed trap in Georgia. The trap relied on a mechanical system that would change the light sequence after being triggered. This friend was told to immediately slow down after feeling a clunk just over the peak of the hill. The system was set up so that once triggered and traveling at the speed limit you would unintentionally run a red light. So they came to the hill, heard the “ka chunk” and cut their speed in half . Halfway down the hill a motorcycle cop goes “cherry top” from behind a bill board. Just as the cop gets on the road he slows down and shuts off his lights and siren. Turns his motorcycle around to go back uphill. My friend and his party wave and go on their way, below the speed limit. That trap had to be manually reset. I wonder what a good lawyer would have done to that town and police department. Sounds like a criminal conspiracy to me.
@washingtonradio
9 ай бұрын
I have heard stories about GSP revoking local police authority to patrol interstates. Also, some notorious speed traps rely on the defendant not knowing they can move their traffic case from the municipal to county traffic court.
@michaeltelson9798
9 ай бұрын
@@washingtonradio I tried to look up about anything similar in Georgia. There was one with a scout at a barbershop that had a button that electronically recycled the light to red. I don’t know if it was the same town as my friend passed away, but the MO is quite similar.
@billstrasburg384
9 ай бұрын
Yep, RICO stuff. This is what Feds are for.
@codemiesterbeats
9 ай бұрын
A friend and I have a video of local cops doing a tag team deal... With at least one squad car on or near the highway the one stationery sits atop The bridge over the major highway with a handheld radar gun and signals or radios the other police. We got a video of the guy sitting on the bridge... he had a little chair and a little cooler we basically drove by making fun of his little setup 😂
@roberteltze4850
9 ай бұрын
I live near one of those towns that used to be a speed trap. It is at the side entrance to a military base and they preyed upon the soldiers going through town. One day they pushed their luck too far, maybe they tagged an officer too high up or a family member of the commander, but the base commander went and had a little talk with the mayor. He informed the mayor that if the practice didn't stop he would declare the town off limits to base personnel and close the gate. Knowing that most of the towns businesses wouldn't survive without customers from the base he had no choice but to have his police back down. The town doesn't even have there own police anymore, all the towns in the country centralized into one police force.
@valentinius62
9 ай бұрын
Yes. Small town cops have long preyed upon Service members...just as the local clip joints and used car dealerships do. On top of that, you have to deal with the dickhead military po-leece _on_ post.
@chunglow7646
9 ай бұрын
Double Dang! 1
@MrTXForester
9 ай бұрын
Not sure where you are but that happened at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth. Folks that had business on that side got mad and made the city back down.
@arga400
9 ай бұрын
People seriously underestimate the power Generals have on civilian authorities, glad that commander stood up for his troops
@tomhenry897
9 ай бұрын
Ft. Campbell 41A?
@christopherbrown4182
9 ай бұрын
There was a similar situation in a small Ohio town called New Rome about 20 some years ago. The Ohio legislature passed laws dis-incorporating the town and everything was disbanded. 90% of the town's budget came from traffic tickets, most of which was plowed back into the never-ending expansion of the police department. Most small-town police chiefs in Ohio are pretty small-time, but this chief kept enhancing his own political fiefdom and basically ran the town, driving out the citizens who wanted to live in a normal small town.
@WoodworkerDan
9 ай бұрын
I was also thinking of New Rome. It was terrible.
@scotcoon1186
9 ай бұрын
There was a town up by Akron that had no interstate access. The police left town to get on the interstate to write tickets, then left town again to get off the interstate and back into town. The state shut them down, too.
@jerryodell1168
9 ай бұрын
What many of these traps do is make people angry. Two relatives were on the Ohio Turnpike when a car pulled up nearly on their bumper and stayed there for a long time. Finally, the driver tried to wiggle them off His bumper. That's when the unmarked State Police turned on the lights and gave them a ticket and demanded immediate payment because they were out-of-state. The driver had cancer and the passenger was a 90 year old and they were on the way to help another Family member. The 90 year old has 11 children and many family members who purchase for companies in their home state. Large purchase that no longer are made in Ohio. That little ticket cost Ohio many millions of dollars.
@glintinggold
9 ай бұрын
Ay, oh, way to go OHIO!
@22smcrrider96
9 ай бұрын
No way not in ohio! You would think a couple ohio cops just went to jail for robbing people they pulled over! Ohio is ridiculous! They lost a whole police force in the last year also
@tomhenry897
9 ай бұрын
Think the police care
@papasquat355
9 ай бұрын
This was a result of some excellent journalism out of Houston. Their expose of this scheme (50 officers in a town of 400) involving speed traps, jurisdictional violations, off duty employment fraud, etc. was what forced the city to shut the department down. Make no mistake, the mayor and city council HAD TO have knowledge of what was going on since they are the ones who funded the department. They should be accountable as well.
@Caderic
9 ай бұрын
What was the "jurisdictional violations" violation? I missed that.
@johnjames4567
9 ай бұрын
"This was a result of some excellent journalism out of Houston. ".......no this was the result of a citizen journalist that has been posting about this for over 2 years......take a guess how a mainstreet media is finally telling this story.....
@edwardwright8127
9 ай бұрын
KHOU investigations continue to surprise me. This kind of investigative journalism is rare these days. Too many journalists are content to rewrite press releases they receive or show up at an event with a camera just to report on what someone has to say.
@brichard9485
9 ай бұрын
Ah, feels like Cherokee county Georgia!
@kerrystoltz3146
9 ай бұрын
My guess since they were brining in a Million in tickets it was easy for the Mayor and council to look the other way
@jonthompson6867
9 ай бұрын
The whole council and mayor let this happen and all should be removed
@johnm840
9 ай бұрын
BINGO
@chrisbudesa9355
9 ай бұрын
The town should be abolished. Unincorporated community in the county.
@jonthompson6867
9 ай бұрын
I like that even better well stated Chris@@chrisbudesa9355
@wtimber
9 ай бұрын
This is why we have investigative journalists. We need to support real journalists like this one, they are becoming an endangered species.
@utoothheartyeight
9 ай бұрын
In Business management, I've always warned my subordinate managers to be careful how they create your department's incentives and goals because that is going to translate into the behavior(s) you will see in the future.
@brettstarks1846
9 ай бұрын
A good story. Just goes to show that for all their power, the police still rely on public approval, and will respond to sustained public pressure.
@andrewkelley9405
9 ай бұрын
they would do well to remember this.
@bubbajones4522
9 ай бұрын
For everyone wondering, these cops were a money making racket for the city officials. They would prey on motorists to collect fines. The people got tired of it and forced the city leaders behind it all to fire the entire crew. These city officials behind it all are claiming innocent and distancing themselves from this scheme.
@chickenmonger123
9 ай бұрын
The Police themselves rarely react with the Public’s interest when they come under scrutiny. Unfortunately. Look at the Criminal Conviction rate against Police accused of Criminal Acts. Approaching 0%. Instead it is only when Powers that threaten the Department or Agency react to the Public start moving that they do anything about their behavior. Here the City moved against the Department. As long they can, the Jackboots will hold on to Power. Such is the Danger of Executive Powers. It should not be. Live by the sword, die by the sword. The inertia of that form of power is such that only the sword can move another with a sword.
@frankvandalen6524
9 ай бұрын
Hopefully!
@unbreakable7633
9 ай бұрын
Mostly where I live, it's "Back the Blue" -- till it happens to you. The cops here are out of control because people don't give a rats behind about what cops do to the people in their clutches.
@markwallace1727
9 ай бұрын
This is all a bit suspect to me. A lot of attention suddenly came to this story. Locals of the town and those travelling through have been saying this for a while apparently. Now all of a sudden the council decides to shut down the police and say "there's no need to investigate now, we closed it down". Yeah, maybe I'm just a cynic, but I'm thinking this still needs a lot of investigation from outside, independent people. It's not like in a town of 250 people that the council had no idea, especially with the amount of money coming in. If they didn't realise shady dealings were happening, Coffee City needs a competent council and they should all fire themselves also. Edit- this goes beyond just being a revenue trap. There's a bunch that apparently don't even live in/near Coffee City. They're using their credentials as police to do outside work, no doubt giving some kind of kick-back to the chief (and quite possibly others too). I'll bet there's more info to come out if a proper investigation is done too (oh what a surprise the council wants to quietly shut down any investigation).
@byronmill
9 ай бұрын
Exactly, the chief getting some kind of kick back is the only way that part of the story makes any sense.
@shanebaumgardner5039
9 ай бұрын
A town away from where I live is known for policing for profit. I ended up having to sue the town and won to be left alone because it came to a point where they would run my plate and just pull me over for something that happened when I was young and dumb.
@stischer47
9 ай бұрын
We had a speed trap outside of San Antonio on IH35 heading towards Austin, Selma, pop.207 (at the time). The interstate was 65 for the entire length EXCEPT for Selma, where it was 55...for the safety of the people in the town (realize that Texas interstates are bordered by frontage roads so that people don't have to get on them to travel). They were so bad that eventually the Texas Legislature passed a law that the TDPS were the only ones who could issue tickets on interstates, but that was vetoed by then governor Briscoe. Eventually the Feds got involved and shut them down.
@keithwyman6272
9 ай бұрын
AMEN! Fines and money made from seized property used in a crime (cars boats etc.) should NEVER go to the police budget. Also, when a police officer tramples over a citizen's rights and the citizen sues and wins,, that money should come out of the police budget
@calvingreene90
9 ай бұрын
From the cops pay 10% out of every paycheck until all losses resulting from officers misconduct are recouped.
@rendclaw7
9 ай бұрын
If any of the items or cash seized return to the city/county, it is the same as going to the police budget. At the end of the day, all debits are added together.
@brandonhebert5485
9 ай бұрын
Wrong. That money should come out of that OFFICERS POCKET. Don't rob the citizens of their police force and their ability to protect the citizens because of a bad cop. Let THAT COP pay up.
@DellikkilleD
9 ай бұрын
@@brandonhebert5485 cops dont protect citizens, thats literally not part of the job
@AnimeReference
9 ай бұрын
Ideally there'd be no incentive for a police to find crime, only to look for it.
@Garth2011
9 ай бұрын
Just a few decades ago, in Los Angeles courts, a ticket was affordable or at least the fines were. Rolling a stop sign might have had a fine of say $90. Today, the fine would be about the same however, now a days, the county/state add for "administration" fees. Now that fine is $500 in total when including the add on fees. That is total corruption making the courts a cash cow.
@JP-ho6zc
9 ай бұрын
Gotta keep VOTING then HOPE for CHANGE.. 😂😂
@stephensarkany3577
9 ай бұрын
Court fees are BS, citizens already pay taxes to support government. Similar to paying school taxes and parents have to buy communal school supplies.
@billshepherd5090
9 ай бұрын
This reminds me of another racket that my small home town had. Every first of the month the town was over flowing with people shopping. The city police came by every half hour and put parking tickets on cars where the parking meter had ran out. You could find cars that had 5 or 6 tickets stacked up under the wipers. I often wondered how many people did that run away from my town to other towns nearby.
@tomhenry897
9 ай бұрын
Wonder why malls took downtown business
@timothyreed7241
9 ай бұрын
I was pulled over on vacation traveling through a small town between Seattle and Spokane Washington. I was going 46 in a 45 and got a $55 non-moving violation ticket. The officer said that it would not be reported, increase my insurance premiums, or put points on my license. If I opted to go to court it was 7 weeks away and I was going to be back home in Florida by then. 7 cops I passed in the span of two miles had people pulled over. Our stop lasted less than two minutes since the officer walked up to our car with laptop in hand and a ticket printer strapped to his duty belt. There's absolutely no reason for the stop other than to make the town money. I could easily see an officer being able to write 50 or possibly double that in tickets for a single shift. It's absolutely ridiculous and most states wouldn't uphold a ticket like that as that speed is well within the margin of error for a regular gauge. I'd imagine if you have a digital readout of your speed on the dash, it would also be within margin of error as well. Paying for a lawyer or just driving to the court house is probably a lot more expensive for most people than just paying the bogus ticket.
@glintinggold
9 ай бұрын
Me too! Concrete, Washington is forever tainted in my memory. They put a 25 mph sign right before the 55 sign, which wasn't there before or since in my travels through there. PS I HOPE I never paid the ticket!
@DecrepitBiden
9 ай бұрын
Had a cop who pulled me over for going 11 miles over the 55 speed limit. He told me you're allowed 10 miles over. So why are you being pulled over for 1 mile over? Several months passed. Then I had another cop that pulled me over for 7 over 55.
@DellikkilleD
9 ай бұрын
yeah, you just toss those tickets in the trash, just means you cant drive through that area again.. for a few years.
@justyntyme114
9 ай бұрын
Ever notice how they make the fine high enough to hurt your wallet, and the cost of a lawyer is double that. Then the lawyer just enters a plea for you to take a class at your expense to have the ticket expunged from your record.
@brandonhebert5485
9 ай бұрын
Their is no margin of error. If you are clocked over the speed limit you are breaking the law and can be pulled over. The sign doesn't say "speed suggestion" it says speed LIMIT. I know one over sucks, but the law is the law. If you're that worried, go 5 under.
@charlespaine987
9 ай бұрын
There is nothing “civil” about civil asset forfeiture there is nothing “civil “about law enforcement that act as “tax” collectors . Legislatures ( mostly lawyers) MUST be more circumspect when writing laws considering unintended consequences of misuses. When law enforcement is more concerned in protecting them selves it is time to clean house fire them and start over.
@TheRealScooterGuy
9 ай бұрын
Just another oxymoron to chew on.
@patrickelliott2169
9 ай бұрын
It shouldn't even be, and in a number of cases where someone has successfully sued over it (and more importantly could afford to, or the theft was large enough to be worth it), been declared freaking unconstitutional. It is literally a government agency illegally seizing property, without legitimate cause or conpensation.
@bc9485
9 ай бұрын
You seem to still be under the delusion that these people's job is to "represent" you. A fairy tale told to you so you would comply. Sorry, your text books lied to you. Nothing has changed, just more out in the open. I forget who, but someone wrote something similar to this- "Power rules by fraud & force. Once the fraud is discovered, all that's left is force." Orwell maybe. I'll give you 1 guess where we're at.
@michaelpettersson4919
9 ай бұрын
In my opinion, if it looks like robbery, its robbery. Btw, the concentration camp system that nazis operated during WW2 was legal because they made it legal. So back to my first point: If it look like robbery it is robbery. Making the robbery legal doesn't change the fact that it is robbery.
@calebfielding6352
9 ай бұрын
this is a problem with the courts not the legislators.
@gravitybear
9 ай бұрын
I watched that series of stories. Coffee City Police also had a unit (half a dozen officers) that didn't even work in the town. They worked out of their homes in Houston and their job was just to call people that owed fines, they called out specifically "failure to appear" fines, to try to get the money. These officers were reportedly paid not an hourly wage, but what amounts to a bounty on each fine they collected. The interviews with this police chief are worth watching.
@22smcrrider96
9 ай бұрын
It's sad that took this all coming to the attention of the public for the mayor to put a stop to it! There is no way that's legal they were literally harassing people! That town brought in over 1 million dollars in fines last year! That's absofucknlutely crazy
@edwardwright8127
9 ай бұрын
One thing you failed to mention: Almost half of those cops didn’t even live or work in Coffee City. They’re in Houston, 200 miles away - and working on commission! The police chief also has a part-time job in Houston.
@thevermonters2395
9 ай бұрын
Steve…. I live on a town in its 700 people and no police department. We call the State Police and wait 40 minutes for them to come. We have the Sheriff Department is hired 2 days a week for a few hours to patrol and radar or what they want.. We have volunteer fire and mutual aid ambulance. Our crime rate is very low and we are able to keep our taxes on the lower side. I know that’s unusual but it can be done. That story is absolutely ridiculous. Thanks for your input.
@meandean3754
9 ай бұрын
Policing for profit has been going on for decades, I can recall when I was young my mom and dad talking about avoiding certain towns because they will make up excuses to pull you over and write you a ticket. Then try to pressure you to pay the fine up front with threat of arrest if you don't pay it. Judge was in on it also so if you tried to go to court and fight it, it would end up costing you more.
@troystallard6895
9 ай бұрын
Years ago I lived in Idyllwild, California. It was common knowledge that if you had long hair and a beard and drove an old pickup, you'd best take back streets if you came down off the mountain and went through Hemet. Because there was no way you'd make it without a ticket if you drove down Florida Ave (the main drag).
@DellikkilleD
9 ай бұрын
yup, I remember getting a ticket for loitering, when my friends jeep overheated and we were pulled over and parked waiting for it to cool off. ARea was known as the local 'cruise' strip, and the cops wrote hundreds of tickets every night. when I went to court to fight it there were hundreds of people lined up out the court room, in a *tiny* little town. The stand was a reduction to a 25$ fine, and the offered it universally to everyone fighting it.
@1waffleiron
9 ай бұрын
Prepare to be shocked, I did not send this one in! 😂
@kenbrown2808
9 ай бұрын
I was the other person who didn't.
@glenn6292
9 ай бұрын
Many of the officers didn't even live in the area. Many lived in Houston, several hours away, and weren't required to report to the dept.. They worked on Failure to Appear warrants and received a $150 commission for each one cleared. Corruption at it's finest. There's no way the mayor and other city officials didn't know about all this and give their consent.
@plcwboy
9 ай бұрын
Being a reserve office and working other jobs you are eligible for because you are a commissioned officer is not in itself 'corruption' If they were not qualified, that is another story. If they engaged in wrong-doing, that is obviously another story. Merely existing and being certified, however, is not wrong.
@glenn6292
9 ай бұрын
The officers I referenced were not reserve officers. They were full time officers. The only pay they received was the commission for closing FTA warrants. These were nothing but bounty hunters.@@plcwboy
@johndesaavedra1040
9 ай бұрын
We once had a village in central Ohio called Darbydale. They turned all the speed limit signs facing away from town. You would leave town and resume speed only to be pulled over. The officer would point to the speed limit signs and ask you to go to the station to pay your fine. They have since lost their charter by action of the Attorney General and no longer have an incorporated village or PD. The same happened to New Rome which had more officers than residents.
@starbellygeek5408
9 ай бұрын
In the state of Texas, towns of less than 5000 population can't get more than 30% of their revenue from speeding tickets from radar speed traps, and have to report if they go over 20%. In this town, something else had to be going on, because the reported ticket revenue wasn't enough to employ 50 officers. It's something to do with letting the 39 or whatever "reserve" officers take extra jobs.
@edwardwright8127
9 ай бұрын
Yes, that plus officers who worked from home tracking down people with outstanding warrants - on commission.
@ultimatecalibur
9 ай бұрын
@@edwardwright8127 So it was a bunch of registered cops acting as bounty hunters?
@kudukilla
9 ай бұрын
Yep, that basically shut down Kendelton, where about the only business in town was the speed trap. I actually saw Kendlelton mentioned in a book about sports cars.
@davwill124
9 ай бұрын
yea, but you are depending on the state of Texas to do the right thing. but then note the state is also getting a cut of ticket fine too
@msdarby515
9 ай бұрын
Yes, and absolutely no one is tracking that information. 😂
@benjie128
9 ай бұрын
My dad and stepmom used to live in a town with 2500 residents. When they first moved there, the town had 1 cop, and he was off duty from 7pm-7am. So the joke was if you had a problem at night, handle it yourself or dont have a problem. Though in a few years they had a big deal when they hired their 2nd cop.
@tdgdbs1
9 ай бұрын
My small town has two police officers but we have the county sherrif for coverage so those two cops just station nearby the city hall.
@JohnDoe-qz1ql
9 ай бұрын
@@tdgdbs1🤣🤣🤣 Brave men, huh. They gravitate towards the action!!
@howlinwulf
9 ай бұрын
We have 1 sheriff that's it
@JohnDoe-qz1ql
9 ай бұрын
@@howlinwulf⁉️‼️
@valentinius62
9 ай бұрын
Too many Karens and "get off my lawn types" out there who have gotten used to dialing 911 for every little thing that ticks them off. Dispatchers need to tell them to not call unless they've been robbed, raped, stabbed, beaten or shot.
@RicochetRichard
9 ай бұрын
I went through a town in KY. many years ago and the speed limit in the town was 7 1/2 M.P.H. and the speed sign was hidden behind a large bush. I just happened to come upon a cop that had just pulled over a out of towner and was pulling back the bush to expose the speed sign. The town was shown on 60 Minutes TV show some years later. As I recall, 60 Minutes had several cars with out of state plates go through this town at a slower speed than 7 1/2 MPH and they all got tickets.
@matthewmiller6068
9 ай бұрын
Yeah, speed traps ABSOLUTELY exist. The one and only time I got a ticket is in a small city and they had a road with apartments T into the road where a school was. If you pulled out from there you had ZERO signs to say if the school zone was active, but immediately after turning onto the school-road there was a 35mph Speed Limit sign IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 25MPH SCHOOL ZONE. They would have people flagging cars down walking out in the road at the end of the school zone where the sign was. Challenging it in court presenting the evidence the judge said "well you can see a school exists at the light you turned onto the road, you should have known if it was a school zone anyways". Nobody can seem to explain how, without being able to see any signage with hours or visible flashing lights how I "would know" that the 35mph sign should have been disregarded and 25 was the limit. During the court date, I think nearly half the cases were for that same speed trap.
@anonanonymous1988
7 ай бұрын
The school zone is usually only 25mph when children are present. I'd check the state law.
@matthewmiller6068
7 ай бұрын
@@anonanonymous1988 it goes by +/- minutes from start or end of school in the law, but that too is difficult to prove really since they don't want to publish those times anywhere I could find at the time. And they go by "if the lights are flashing that means its within the time" it seems for enforcement purposes...even if said lights can't be seen. Solution seems to be "go 25 nomater the time of day just in case"
@CraigGrant-sh3in
9 ай бұрын
There is a rural town near here that has a population of over 5000 residences. Their police department consists of a chief and two officers. I find it hard to believe the mayor nor town council knew anything about this. Not even a question on how they were generating so much in court fees. I guess as long as the money is coming in and it gets you reelected, you become sargeant Schultz, " I see nothing".
@freedomspromise8519
9 ай бұрын
I grew up in a small farm town in Ohio. Our population was under 1500, maybe lower. For a very long time we had one police officer. We thought we had moved up when we had two. Then we moved to chief of police and several officers. My little town is now very large. Speed traps, police who trespass on private property to write tickets on expired tags on boats, boats which are completely covered, in garages, too many tickets for window tint from off the lot vehicles. Most cases thrown out by the municipal judge. They get one person in their sights and refuse to let up. They hound that person 24/7. It’s ridiculous. I couldn’t live there now.
@DaddyBeanDaddyBean
9 ай бұрын
My friend bought herself a new Camaro for a 45th birthday present, and was making it walk & talk on the back roads near one of those small towns. She came across a "SPEED LIMIT 35 AHEAD" sign when she was going between 120-130mph. She immediately started slowing down but it was way too late, and she was clocked at 90mph... in the 15mph school zone at the edge of town. 😳
@cameraredeye3115
9 ай бұрын
Hope she enjoys that speeding ticket 😁
@DaddyBeanDaddyBean
9 ай бұрын
@@cameraredeye3115 Not one little bit. Hundreds of dollars, six points, and a mandatory safe driving course.
@DaddyBeanDaddyBean
9 ай бұрын
I grew up in a town of 2000, with three full-time officers and a small handful of part-timers. 250 people and 50 officers is already corrupt even if they all behave themselves perfecty.
@ScampDiesel
9 ай бұрын
in seattle the police say if your 26yrs old your only worth $11k if the police run you over.
@roberthodges3646
9 ай бұрын
In the 90s they falsely accused a man in seattle of murder went to prison. An investigative reporter with Komo 4 news i believe it was found out it was not him he died from the stress his son collected the the money from the lawsuit... paid for by tax payers. Prosecutors are crooks in seattle. Brady Violations through the roof. The bar should have slapped them over embesseling money from their clients so they make them prosecutors. Seattle is more crooked than New York City. The big thing and I wish i could post but they are using cell site simulators over seattle massively data collecting over seattle. HB 1440 2015.
@MrMartinSchou
9 ай бұрын
Well, yeah! The PD has to pay for the repairs of the cop car out of their own budget. And they need to pay the therapist for the cop who killed the pedestrian. And they need to pay for the lawyer that goes to court. And for the police union. It all adds up really quickly, so just count yourself lucky that there's even $11k left once all that has been paid! /s
@texasrefugee7888
9 ай бұрын
Strange you should say that. I watched a channel yesterday of a cop's body cam in seattle. Some young girl had just been hit and killed by a car. And this cop was laughing his a** off about it.👹He was a top dog in the cop union there. somebody leaked this body cam. He is a sadistic psychopath.
@hugoh.9694
9 ай бұрын
@@MrMartinSchouThe family doesn't get "what's left". Sorry to break it to you. That is NOT how this works. Lol
@richwightman3044
9 ай бұрын
@@hugoh.9694Irony and sarcasm doesn’t resonate with you, huh?
@jamescouture775
9 ай бұрын
This reminds me of a town near where I use to live. The town had 150 people and 16 full time cops. The police chief the mayor and their own judge who were all brothers. Their were only 4 miles of roads in the whole town 2 1/2 of which was a state 2 lane highway. They were issuing thousands of tickets. You would often see all 8 of their squad cars with 8 different cars pulled over on that 2 1/2 miles at the same time. That ended when the state took over and told them they couldn't their own court.
@brandonhebert5485
9 ай бұрын
What does that mean? "They couldn't their own court?"
@PeterSedesse
9 ай бұрын
Most of Georgia is like that. You have these tiny population counties that are located between atlanta-macon-savannah and their entire police force does nothing but speed traps on the highway.
@tomhenry897
9 ай бұрын
Town jugde hired by the town not appointed by the governor and approved by the state senate
@armus550b
9 ай бұрын
Speed limits are set based on federal guidelines that usually come out of fhwa. They are based off of worst case scenarios for the condition and design of the roadway. So most of the time the numbers are conservative. This in my opinion makes it totally acceptable to exceed the posted limit when the conditions are not in the worst case.
@dw7444
9 ай бұрын
We need a nation wide "bad cop" registry and a law that prevents anybody on that list from being hired as a cop again.... it's a shame it'll never happen
@TheCaptainmojo1973
9 ай бұрын
The town council was fully aware of what was going on. They just washed their hands once the story broke on a major Houston tv news channel. P.S. the chief was himself avoiding extradition to the state of FL on a DUI charge.
@pipbernadotte6707
9 ай бұрын
The Houston are is riddled with this sort of corruption. Patton Village on highway 59 is similar.
@cameraredeye3115
9 ай бұрын
That and Woodbranch Village just across Peach Creek. Both PDs are thankfully tiny, but they enforce speed limits to a T. I once got pulled over by a stealthy Patton Village cop on 242, and the reason was "doing 60 in a 50 zone" (this was before the construction on 242 started). The answer to this is simple: don't speed through small towns. They will get your ass.
@alfie1529
9 ай бұрын
In Arkansas, there is a state law that says a city cannot generate more than 30% of its revenue by writing traffic citations. That did cut down on some small town speed trap areas.
@UserNameAnonymous
9 ай бұрын
Steve - Independent reporters will still exist and they might be even better. You're an independent radio host and your show is better than just about any radio station ever.
@irishroverinflorida5822
9 ай бұрын
A pig less town? Now it's probably the safest town in America!
@knowthycell
9 ай бұрын
yeah right
@tedkaczynskiamericanhero3916
9 ай бұрын
I have the similar thoughts about diversity. 99% white?!?! Probably the safest town in the country!
@Voltaic_Fire
9 ай бұрын
Maybe, it depends on how armed the population is, an armed society is a polite society.
@tvc1848
9 ай бұрын
They still have police patrolling. It just isn’t the city police.
@AeroGuy07
9 ай бұрын
I grew up in a town that had a population of 260, if the wind was right. Despite being one of two towns in the entire county that was incorporated, we didn't have a police department. We had the county sheriff and state cops, maybe 15 cops in the entire county. If you needed the cops, they'd be there in 15-45 minutes. If you tried to put 50 cops in this town, they'd be doubled up on the street corners.
@justicedemocrat9357
9 ай бұрын
OMG I don't care about your life.
@TheRealScooterGuy
9 ай бұрын
@@justicedemocrat9357 -- New to KZitem?
@gasad01374
9 ай бұрын
ah yes, the classic "just tell the murderer to wait 15 minutes so we can get there to stop them" places like this might as well just make all crime legal because nobody is getting caught anyways.
@AeroGuy07
9 ай бұрын
@@justicedemocrat9357 Cool. You know how you show someone you don't care?
@edwardwright8127
9 ай бұрын
The ironically named Coffee City used to derive significant income from the sale of alcohol, since it was adjacent to a dry county. Then the law changed, people no longer needed to drive to Coffee City to buy booze, and the town went into decline. So, the town council was probably all too happy to find a new police chief who could “create jobs” and “bring in revenue,” as politicians would phrase it.
@michaelswami
9 ай бұрын
I find it astonishing. The city Council just looked around and discovered that they had all these police officers.
@mahbriggs
9 ай бұрын
Yeah! We had that problem in the town near me a few years ago! They had a training grant from the Feds to train rookie cops, and the town ordered them to write tickets, so they did! After they wrote several locals up for one mile an hour over, they were told to not ticket locals any more! It lasted about a year before there was a new mayor and city council, and the practice ended!
@robertadams8192
9 ай бұрын
As far as speed limit signs. I remember a few years back there was a court case about a speed trap in a small town where the speed was reduced to a very slow and unexpected speed but, for years, the sign was blocked by tree branches that were never trimmed. Is was a nice source of income until someone challenged in in court with photos showing that the only way to read the sign was to pull the branches back. Often the police were in plain view of the sign. They just sat there and waited for out of staters! Also, in Toronto, there are a number of main roads that dip down and go under a number Railroad bridges. The speed limit drops by 5kph under the bridges but you have to use your brakes to reduce your speed and maintain it. There is really no reason to reduce the speed except police often locate on the other side as these dips which are good and reliable sources of revenue.
@BD-xz6te
9 ай бұрын
I went to court with photos like that once. The judge flicked them off onto the floor and gave me the maximum fine and forced me to pay for traffic school as well. I was charged with going 30 over in a school zone, on a road with no school, late in the evening in the middle of summer. I was going 5 under the posted limit because I'd just pulled onto the road and saw that the light was going to be red before I got to the next intersection. There were no school zone signs, or anything but one "reduced speed ahead" sigh that was so overgrown that I only spotted it by the pole it was mounted on.
@thenaimis
9 ай бұрын
When HPD calls you out, you know you've really crossed the line
@maxsmodels
9 ай бұрын
They shut down a department in Waldo FL over this kind of corruption.
@valentinius62
9 ай бұрын
Edgewater was notorious for being a speed trap years ago. And automatically assume any little beach town is a speed trap.
@WilliamBrinkley45
9 ай бұрын
If the chief and administration is willing to lie about background checks on its officers, what else have they lied about and gotten away with….corruption doesn’t just stay in the hiring practices, it start migrating into other dept practices especially when those officers who the dept needed to lie about their pasts get any attention and they need to muddy the water to keep someone from digging into the initial corruption
@deenaeast7006
9 ай бұрын
The Texas Rangers is looking into this
@jodyvanliew2514
9 ай бұрын
Coffee City , TX reminds me of Brookside , AL . I am glad that KHOU brought this to light .
@DCaulliette
9 ай бұрын
20 years old, but probably still accurate. In Hartville, MO, I was told by a law enforcement officer that they were told that if they didn't write enough tickets to match their salary, they wouldn't be paid. I have many first hand stories from that town.
@Voltaic_Fire
9 ай бұрын
The whole police department could have been replaced with a speed camera and nobody would have noticed.
@Charles_ONeal
9 ай бұрын
I read that Texas has banned speed and red light cameras.
@tvc1848
9 ай бұрын
@@Charles_ONeal Yep. Texas never approved speed cameras and red light cameras were made unlawful about 6 years ago.
@cameraredeye3115
9 ай бұрын
@@tvc1848 The red light cameras in Humble (just 20 miles north of downtown Houston) are still active for at least another year due to pre-existing contractual obligations. Everywhere else, they're gone. And guess where most of those cameras in question are at? Along the FM 1960 bypass, which is a nasty road to drive on anyway.
@tvc1848
9 ай бұрын
@@cameraredeye3115 Yes. An already signed contract is allowed to run its course because ….. it’s a contract. In my city there have never been red light cameras but people think they exist. That is because so many intersections now have traffic cameras to determine the light sequence. Some roads for example stay green in one direction until a vehicle arrives in the crossroad.
@markthebuilder9837
9 ай бұрын
The city council handles the budgets, so they were aware of what was going on in the police dept.. The investigation needs to go deeper.
@JaredJanhsen
9 ай бұрын
How does a Mayor not know how many heads are on the municipal payroll? Especially when there's nearly as many heads as there are residents of the town.
@Scootphoria
9 ай бұрын
Yep, and I'm from that little town in Alabama. The worst part is, they make the little poor people that are scrapping by even more poor and desperate.
@djangoapple8230
9 ай бұрын
In my state 5% of all fines goes into retirement funds for police , prosecutors and judges. Not only that it pays the corporation handling the funds. What a racket.
@bigd9396
9 ай бұрын
Steve thanks for the service you provide. You are amazing .
@THE-michaelmyers
9 ай бұрын
It's interesting how this happens. I have a close friend who lives in Lufkin Texas and he told me a story about a small town north of Lufkin on US 69 called Wells. All 4 of his grandparents are buried in a cemetery north of town. He was born in the mid-1950s and told me many times that as a small child, he remembered Wells had no police dept. Then sometime around 1980 give or take a few years Wells hired a former truck driver to be their Police force. This small town has a town homecoming every March. My friend told me during one of these homecomings he seen about 8 cops wearing badges. The population is just over 800 people, how can they afford this many cops? Oh and yes Wells is one of over a hundred small Texas towns that are speed traps. When they close one up like what was happening in Tenaha Texas 2 more spring up ready to take their place!
@maryanderson3134
9 ай бұрын
Wow, I live in this area. I know all about these little towns❤
@cameraredeye3115
9 ай бұрын
I've driven between Houston and Tyler several times, with most of those trips going through Wells. And yes, the speed limit there is a mere 40 MPH even after US 69 got expanded to 4 lanes through that town. Over the years I've seen a few Wells PD officers pulling people over, likely for disregarding that 40 MPH speed limit which is NOT a good idea to begin with. The best option is to simply slow down.
@maryanderson3134
9 ай бұрын
@@cameraredeye3115 I live in NACOGDOCHES so you have to be careful on 59 and 69
@AtariPamMaria
9 ай бұрын
When asked what he thought of his police Department's size, Mayor Jefferson Davis "J.D." Hogg stated that "you can never have enough police officers to keep your citizens safe."
@xenaguy01
9 ай бұрын
12:40 That's my roommate's favorite line. _"Ma'am, do you know why I pulled you over today?"_ "I don't know, because you were bored?"
@imbalancedstatus8824
9 ай бұрын
Steve, the Chief has an Oustanding Warrant for his arrrest out of florida for DUI
@stupidburp
9 ай бұрын
There are too many problems with local police departments. Better for everyone to have that law enforcement at a higher government level such as county or state.
@danharold3087
9 ай бұрын
Not really. The more impersonal police are the more apt they are to hand you a ticket saying I don't care. Local police can be very good.
@owensomers8572
9 ай бұрын
I hope this story continues to be followed. Sure, the Chief has been fired and the department disbanded, but who in the council/mayor/town manager's office was involved?
@davidhbrown9767
9 ай бұрын
I can add that part of that "force" wasn't even working within the city limits. They were working making FTA calls and collecting fines for "Failure To Appear" and didn't even come to the city to work.
@ColSandersCovers
9 ай бұрын
Glad you got to this one. Been seeing it unfold live on KHOU 11’s channel over the last few days. Crazy to see
@rogerlibby14613
9 ай бұрын
The new Chief started in2021? He could not have hired all of these 50 cops. I heard about Coffee, Tx being a speed trap OVER 15 years ago.
@GilmerJohn
9 ай бұрын
Off hand, I would say 25 a year. Seriously, if most of these guys were working as security guards and were just hired to give them "creds," they it's quite likely that the chief only hired a relatively handful and the rest from referrals.
@joeycorbett
9 ай бұрын
A little back story from someone who's driven thru this town numerous times and lived about 10 miles north of it. Coffee City, is a Liquor town on the northern boarder of it's county. The county just north was completely dry, and still does not sell liquor. So if you want a little spirits for your Friday night, and live in the southern part of Tyler, a town of 100k just 15 miles north of it, Coffee City is the closest place. So they are known to stop people without cause and just check for open containers.
@tcmxiyw
9 ай бұрын
It seems logical that you should be able to accelerate as soon as you see the sign. Near my house the speed limit on a frontage road is placed exactly at the point where a short entry ramp feeds the freeway. Waiting to accelerate until you reach the sign endangers both those already on the freeway and those entering the freeway.
@Caderic
9 ай бұрын
"It seems logical that you should be able to accelerate as soon as you see the sign." That's bad logic. That is you see the sign from the other side of town? In a town that small, it is very possible. They put the sign in the location they are for a reason.
@Maplicito
9 ай бұрын
I never noticed the LOI CITRON plate before - that's awesome! This story was great too - it's not often you hear of rotten departments being eliminated.
@mjengel84
9 ай бұрын
I knew a Trooper that patrolled a rural stretch of interstate who said he wasn’t going to risk his life to cite someone except those going over 90 mph… and he said he was kept busy all shift with writing those tickets!
@zeriousvolt1245
9 ай бұрын
In Finland, none of the money from fines go back to the police department that wrote them. It goes to the country’s treasury together with taxmoney. There is no incentive for the police to write tickets for anything else than true law violations.
@mrwess1927
5 ай бұрын
Usa needs this.
@duanecarlson8440
9 ай бұрын
The city government did not go far enough. They should have resigned as a group for allowing this to happen. You will never make me believe that they did not know and condone what was going on,
@martinswiney2192
9 ай бұрын
Same thing happened in Brookside Alabama. Small town with big federal grant. Got too big for their britches and finally were mostly fired. Lots of civil rights violations and zero enforcement against the local drug dealers. As I write this you mentioned it. Ha.
@loosemoose9799
9 ай бұрын
Brookside was policing illegally on the interstate. They had deal with a towing company that shared towing revenue withe city. Out of state drivers were victims. They stopped a lady, arrested her and towed her car. She brought a law suit against them and their game was shut down. I believe the chief resigned and most cops left.
@brianhaygood183
9 ай бұрын
I drive through there regularly. On a 70MPH highway, this little spot drops to 55mph and they hand out tickets on that highway as fast as humanly possible. There is no reason the speed limit is that low in this area. Part of it is a long perfectly straight bridge with four divided lanes. Absurd. Congrats to Coffee City for taking back their town.
@michaelmohrle1773
9 ай бұрын
Because they know anyone with a brain wants to clear the bridge as quickly as possible, they can collapse and you can fall to your death. Very scummy on their part.
@cameraredeye3115
9 ай бұрын
Think that's nuts? In Wells, TX, the main drag (US 69) is speed-limited to 40 MPH, and that's even AFTER the road got expanded to 4 lanes through there (it was a 2-lane highway through that town just 10-12 years prior). Regardless, the safest option is to SLOW DOWN. It is not gonna kill you to spend an extra 30 seconds doing the speed limit going through these small towns.
@jr85009
9 ай бұрын
That news station did a great job in investigating! Freedom of press is vital for a democracy to survive!
@mattalford3932
9 ай бұрын
Where I lived in Arizona there's a highway that turns into a main town road full of truck stops and gas stations. The speed limit goes from like 65 to 35 fast enough that it's hard to get slowed down in time. Cops are always sitting behind a billboard waiting to issue tickets lol.
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