Speeding - Limited Resources or Limited Leadership

[Jeff Dreger]

Oh, and I see no shortage of speeders - my street or school zones or generally. We've had the portable radar "your speed" sign thing on our street the last few days - presumably in response to increased issues/complaints recently

[Jeff Dreger]

Will Brown: "That is a Linndale tactic. where they hung out on the small stretch of the interstate that passed within their borders, and aggressively cited and fined, and that was how they got the money to run their little town."

Will Brown: "I don't have any figures, but if I had to bet, I would bet that speed traps are a money loser."

I'm confused.

[Will Brown]

I would guess that you are not familiar with how the Linndale "court" worked. You can look it up if you want.

[Jim O'Bryan]

My simple belief is that the only thing a city needs to supply to a community is is "clean and safe."
So no matter what it cost to do that, it should be done. Once a city accomplishes
that, then they can play in other areas. This is pretty much proven when looking at a City
Charter. Fun, economic development incentives, land banking, Community Sports Centers,
etc. Should only be attempted after, clean and safe are 100%.

So speeding on streets, a safety issue should be of top priority, and not a "should we."

As for speed traps...

For decades I have been in favor of speed traps, with Lakewood Police warning Lakewood
resident speeders to "be safe, we want you around, you better slow down, next time.."
and the rest have the book thrown at them. If it is a money maker.

If Linndale could pay for City Services with 1/4 mile of freeway, maybe we could we pay
for hoops, parks more opened, improvements, a couple more police for the streets with our 2.7 miles?

.

[Ryan Salo]

If Linndale could pay for City Services with 1/4 mile of freeway, maybe we could we pay for hoops, parks more opened, improvements, a couple more police for the streets with our 2.7 miles?.

If we have radar cars out 10-12+ hours a day and they only issue approx. 1 ticket per day why do you think it would be any better on the highway?

[Will Brown]

Don't use Linndale as your exemplar. Its been a few years, and my memory may have gaps, but I think they were regarded as robbers. Was it a mayor's court as I seem to recall? Did the mayor offer the speeder, if indeed he even was a speeder, the option of pleading to a non-chargeable offense, such as a broken tail light, or to a chargeable speeding offense, with the fine being the same no matter which you chose. If you were stiff-necked enough to plead not guilty and hire a lawyer, did the mayor find you guilty anyway?

[Jim O'Bryan]

Don't use Linndale as your exemplar. Its been a few years, and my memory may have gaps, but I think they were regarded as robbers. Was it a mayor's court as I seem to recall? Did the mayor offer the speeder, if indeed he even was a speeder, the option of pleading to a non-chargeable offense, such as a broken tail light, or to a chargeable speeding offense, with the fine being the same no matter which you chose. If you were stiff-necked enough to plead not guilty and hire a lawyer, did the mayor find you guilty anyway?

Will

It was a mayor's court. So was "Riverview" I think it was on Grayton Road. A small trailer
village that had incorporated and was a speed trap, that disappeared when they built I-480.

If Linndale could pay for City Services with 1/4 mile of freeway, maybe we could we pay for hoops, parks more opened, improvements, a couple more police for the streets with our 2.7 miles?.

If we have radar cars out 10-12+ hours a day and they only issue approx. 1 ticket per day why do you think it would be any better on the highway?

Ryan

I am not in favor of speed traps just to have them. Though speed traps do send a message
that a city is tough on crime.

What I am saying is that safety for residents should always be priority number 1 in a community. Once that is accomplished, or if you have additional staff, put them on I-90,
or Clifton, or Hall/Woodward.

If the I-90 speed trap is not cost effective, scrap it. It adds little to the safety of the city.
On the other hand, Clifton speed traps would.

.

[Ryan Salo]

I called the Rocky River police department this morning. Unlike Lakewood, which made me go to the site to find the numbers on my own, the Lt. I spoke with said he would run a quick report and email it to me. They have 2 ways of issuing tickets, the first is on duty officers and the other is their POPAS (Police On Patrol Arresting Speeders) which is overtime officers working I-90. He said that group pays for itself. Here are the numbers.

rrtickets.jpg (70.46 KiB) Viewed 2561 times

[Jim O'Bryan]

He said that group pays for itself.

rrtickets.jpg

So according to the Rocky River Police. it pays for itself, while putting more officers on the streets.

I am sure these overtime officers can chase bad guys too.

So another revenue stream lost, that could have potentially kept our streets safer (more
police) and cleaner (We are only saving $40,000 a year in 7 years putting trash cans on lawns).
Add in the $250,000 - $500,000 we have lost as estimated on giving our lumber
away to a for profit company, even delivering it at times, and we seem to have a City Hall
that is blind to opportunities to make the city cleaner and safer. Yet they battle for drunk
buses and more businesses that make Lakewood less safe and clean.

Seems like we could have bigger better parks, more hoops, more things that make Lakewood nice,
if City Hall and our elected officials cared to do it.

Seems odd to me, but what do I know?

.

[Ryan Salo]

As I was driving back from getting an E-Check at the Lube Stop I noticed a parking enforcement vehicle and was reminded how many we have floating around the city. I would imagine that most of those that are ticketed either are residents or consumers spending money in our city.

I have requested the total number of parking tickets issued for last year and YTD but, from an outsiders view, it sure appears we spend more of our "limited resources" on fining people investing in the city than we do on those just "flying" through...

I also requested the figures from Rocky River and will post the results when I get them.

[Ryan Salo]

Wow Rocky River PD have their data organized. 30 minutes after I requested the information via email I received the following.

Ryan,

Here are our parking ticket statistics for this year and 2013.

2013 total parking tickets issued 1,465
2014 total parking tickets issued 1,661

Lt Bill Crates
Rocky River PD

I am still waiting to hear from Lakewood, I was told it was not easy to access and I may need to do a public records request, we shall see.

One thing I have learned about my business, volunteering, and I guess just about life, is that things get done easier if you are organized and have easy access to information.

Does anyone know if the city still uses CitiStat? The last reports I found online were from 2008...

http://blog.cleveland.com/lakewoodsunpo ... anded.html

The city of Lakewood engaged the CitiStat process in August 2005 and
implementation began in the first quarter of 2006. The CitiStat process
helps to identify issues and create solutions to improve the collection
and reporting of data in order to make sound management decisions and
improve operations.

The site is at http://www.ci.lakewood.oh.us/citistat.html

Page not found...

[Michael Deneen]

Does anyone know if the city still uses CitiStat? The last reports I found online were from 2008...

Perhaps Citistat kept track of drivers licenses....and it knew too much!!

#conspiracycorner
#itsleepswiththefishes
#missing17minutes

[Ryan Salo]

Does anyone know if the city still uses CitiStat? The last reports I found online were from 2008...

Perhaps Citistat kept track of drivers licenses....and it knew too much!!

#conspiracycorner
#itsleepswiththefishes
#missing17minutes

+1!

[marklingm]

Does anyone know if the city still uses CitiStat? The last reports I found online were from 2008...

Perhaps Citistat kept track of drivers licenses....and it knew too much!!

#conspiracycorner
#itsleepswiththefishes
#missing17minutes

+1!

+1

[marklingm]

I am still waiting to hear from Lakewood, I was told it was not easy to access and I may need to do a public records request, we shall see.

Ryan,

Why would City Hall require you to make a public records request?

Matt