LDRydr
A Homeless Nomad
Our local newspaper, The Columbian, just spent considerable time (and some $$$) researching state records to find out why it appears we're seeing a lot of Washington State Patrol cruisers on our local sections of highways here in Clark county. And wouldn't you know it, the reason is we rank SECOND in the state for number of tickets per highway mile (66.17 tickets) for Jan-June 2007, trailing Snohomish county (83.09), but ahead of King (56.92) and Kitsap (60.78) counties. The first half of 2007 saw a total of about 165,000 speeding tickets issued in our state by the WSP.
An online, shortened version of the article is HERE. It looks like the AP picked up the story so maybe you've seen it in your paper. It has some cool graphics in the print version that don't show up online. I won't get political, but it's an interesting read about how/why they increase patrols in certain areas. We happen to have some construction going on (who doesn't?) that's causing accident numbers to go up, so patrols (and tickets) have increased.
You may ask, "Where does my ticket money go once I give it up"? Here's the breakdown: (according to the Washington Admin Office of the Courts and WSP)
State public safety & education account 36.1% (Washington State Patrol's share of about 5% comes from this account)
Local government current expense general fund 35.8%
State judicial information systems account 13.7%
State auto-theft account 8%
State trauma care account 4%
State traumatic brain injury account 1.6%
Local government crime victims account 0.64%
One very important fact mentioned in the article states that when you obey the speed limit your odds of getting a speeding a ticket fall precipitously. No-Duh.
An online, shortened version of the article is HERE. It looks like the AP picked up the story so maybe you've seen it in your paper. It has some cool graphics in the print version that don't show up online. I won't get political, but it's an interesting read about how/why they increase patrols in certain areas. We happen to have some construction going on (who doesn't?) that's causing accident numbers to go up, so patrols (and tickets) have increased.
You may ask, "Where does my ticket money go once I give it up"? Here's the breakdown: (according to the Washington Admin Office of the Courts and WSP)
State public safety & education account 36.1% (Washington State Patrol's share of about 5% comes from this account)
Local government current expense general fund 35.8%
State judicial information systems account 13.7%
State auto-theft account 8%
State trauma care account 4%
State traumatic brain injury account 1.6%
Local government crime victims account 0.64%
One very important fact mentioned in the article states that when you obey the speed limit your odds of getting a speeding a ticket fall precipitously. No-Duh.
