Annapolis city police department uses entrapment to place fund raising ahead of traffic safety.
Annapolis police department entrapment/fund raising scenario.........
To make the trap effective the police must do the following:
(1) Establish a location and conditions where entrapment is sure to yield a high number of victims.(In this example, a pedestrian crosswalk in a heavily traveled area with a 30 MPH speed limit).
(2) Give no advance warning that you are approaching a pedestrian crosswalk.( Heading east there is an advance warning sign about 375 feet before the cross walk sign. At 30 MPH this gives the driver about 8.5 seconds to decide whether it is safer to proceed or to stop for the pedestrian. Heading west there is no advance warning sign and thus no warning before reaching the sign at the crosswalk.)
(3) Station police cars(hidden of coarse) several hundred feet from each sign.
(4) Equip an officer in plain clothes with a hand held radio and have him randomly select target vehicles to step in front of. This forces the motorist to quickly decide whether to make a sudden stop from 30 MPH and risk a rear end collision or have the pedestrian wait for a safer time to cross.
(5) When the motorist decides it is safer NOT to stop, the entrapment officer calls ahead and has the offending motorist pulled to the side of the street for ticketing.
(6) When the line of cars to be ticketed gets so long that it causes its own dangerous traffic jam....suspend entrapments until those officers writing tickets catch up.
(7) When the police induced traffic jams clear resume entrapments.
(8) Record activities with video equipment to furthur intimidate victims.
Note: If each of the four ticket writing officers writes one ticket every 5 minutes
That's 48 tickets/hour @ $80.00 each the yield is $3840/hour.
This scenario was used by Annapolis city police near the intersection of West St.& Parole St. on 20 June 2012 at noon-time. It is important to note that the motorists charged with this offense were not violating any traffic laws until being induced by police to break the law. According to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary the definition of the word entrapment is:"the action of luring an individual into committing a crime in order to prosecute the person for it". This definition describes exactly the actions of the Annapolis city police department on this occasion.
If a crosswalk must be maintainted at this location it should be made as safe as possible.This can be accomplished by reducing the speed limit approaching the crosswalk, providing advance warning signs in both directions and installing a pedestrian activated crossing light. This has been done effectively in many other locations. If this obvious solution were implemented the city would be deprived of the $80.00 per violation that it collects from each entrapped taxpayer. The fact that it would also eliminate a dangerous situation does not seem important when compared to the thousands of dollars that can be extorted from citizens.
This kind of practice is shameful and has no place in the United States of America. Our police officers are better than that.
Annapolis Resident 21401
4:07 pm on Monday, June 25, 2012
Agreed. Cross walks are important. The ones that are on West St., between Chinquapin and Solomon's Island Rd are a joke. There is so much blight in that area it's actually difficult to see if a person is attempting to enter the crosswalk until you are almost to the crosswalk. Then it's not safe to stop for them to cross! I have also suggested the idea of the pedestrian activated flashing light. In that area, you need to have sufficient advance notice to safely slow to a stop to protect both the pedestrian and other drivers.
I would also note that it seems there are many pedestrians that do not fully comprehend the crossing signals that are at traffic lights. They seem to be under the false impression that a solid red hand means they can still cross because they are in a cross walk. This is most evident at the turn from Church Circle onto Duke of Glouchester. (See http://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2010/transportation/title-21/subtitle-5/21-503/)
William W. Collins
6:58 pm on Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Thanks for your comment. it highlights the fact there are not two separate groups of citizens,one motorist and one pedestrian. We are all both and we are all concerned with our safety as well as the safety of the community at large. We must all, private citizens and police alike, do our part if we are going to solve the problems facing our community. Law enforcement officials should not be engaged in schemes designed to induce people to break the law in order to raise revenues. Such activities create an environment where citizens look at law enforcement officers with fear and suspicion. Isn't it sad that the phrase....."I'm from the government and I'm here to help" has become a joke in our society. Good communities are created when citizens and government officials work together to build a better place in which to live. We have too many problems to solve to waste our time being adversaries.