Recent discussions about “speed traps” in Snohomish County and revenue collected from traffic tickets presented some interesting questions we plan to follow up on in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, we explored a couple of issues raised in your posts:
Crossing the line?
Steve Burling told us about a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy who ticketed him in May 2009 for driving with expired tabs. Fair enough. That’s what happened, he said. But he was driving along I-405 in King County, and the citation was filed in Snohomish County’s South District Court. Burling thought that was wrong. He questioned the logic of a Snohomish County deputy citing him for an out-of-county case in a way that any revenue collected from the $216 ticket could have been owed to a court here.
As the Snohomish man reported, and the docket confirmed, the ticket was promptly tossed out. The judge ruled the case was brought in the wrong venue.
Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover ran down the details. She said it was an honest mistake by a deputy who lives in King County and who happened to spot an infraction on his way to work.
“We are not trying to get money from King County tickets in Snohomish County,” she said.So why are deputies pulling over drivers in Everett?
Consult a map.
“Everett is in Snohomish County and we are the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office,” Hover said.
Deputies making traffic stops within Everett city limits often are there for a specific reason, such as a planned emphasis patrol. Some also will spot a problem while traveling to or from Everett District Court. That’s where many sheriff’s office traffic cases are handled, Hover said.
And while lots of folks dislike tickets, the sheriff’s office frequently hears from people in neighborhoods where speeding and other traffic offenses are a big concern.
“People are equally upset if not more upset when we are not patrolling, not looking for speeders,” she said.
How about maps of the “speed trap” locations?
One of you keeps asking for maps of places where the deputies are ticketing drivers in Everett. Sorry, Charlie, we can’t deliver. We haven’t got enough verified information to provide something that would be accurate and meaningful. We’ll give it some thought, though, and see what’s possible.
One of my regular routes takes me across the Snohomish River on Highway 529 from Marysville into Everett. I’ll admit a moment of surprise not long ago when I saw a sheriff’s deputy on a motorcycle using his radar to check speeds of southbound drivers crossing the Ebey Slough Bridge.
The county’s deputy was on a state highway right at Marysville city limits, clocking traffic headed to Everett. Holy jurisdiction, Batman.
That bridge just now also happens to be a work zone, and swarming with crews working on a new span. Traffic zooms by at close quarters. It could go bad, real fast.
I’m not alone, I’m sure, in being glad a sheriff’s deputy was there, silently reminding people to be careful.
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