Van Tracks Speeders

doughesson wrote:

When you don't halt,it does tend to make cops think that you are up to something.
Did you notice anything before the shotgun was shoved in your face or were you so wrapped up in you own little world as defined by your tape player and earphones that you didn't see the police cars or hear anyone hollering at you to stop you and sort the problem out?
Not paying attention to your surroundings is more than stupid,it can be deadly,like if you can't hear a train blowing for the crossing because you have the music cranked up so loud,or if you don't hear a cop hollering to show your hands and you turn towards him with a hand in your pocket.
<quoted text>

I can see your point of view, and understand what you are saying, but since I didn't give all the details of what happened, would hope you understand that you don't know the whole story and its easier to Monday morning quarterback now than when it happened. I travel all over the world for work and am more than aware of my surroundings where ever I may be (especially places Americans aren't very well liked or popular). If anything, that experience did teach me that. But to answer you question about noticing the police cars, no I didn't as the blinds were closed in the windows of the business including the front door and the first thing that I saw was the shotgun.

They can participate in other ways.

Like putting up a sign (that awful 1st Amendment thing, you know?) warning of a SCAM CAM a mile ahead.

The InFaMous El Guapo wrote:

They can participate in other ways.
Like putting up a sign (that awful 1st Amendment thing, you know?) warning of a SCAM CAM a mile ahead.

They did. It's a yellow sign at every entrance to the city, on every road, stating 'Traffic Laws are Photo Enforced'.

doughesson wrote:

Not many NASCAR drivers get speeding tickets.People who ignore the speed limit signs aren't emulating them,they are just breaking the law.
<quoted text>

Let me put this in plain terms that even you can understand.

In the last year my family spent in excess of eleven thousand dollars, according to my financial records (technology is such a great thing, isn't it?) in Millington, most of which was at locally owned and operated businesses.

Without exception, each and every one of those businesses has a competitor in some other place where we are coming from, or going to, while we run our business. Millington is that "spot in the middle" that, as a matter of convenience, we stopped to pick up what we needed.

But please do not make a mistake on this, it is not a necessity that we do business there.

And going forward, we won't.

My bet is that once more than a few of the marines and sailors at NSA get their greetings in the mail, many of them will also find Tipton area businesses much more appreciative of their commerce and trade.

In case you haven't noticed, while the businesses around Millington have been shuttered, especially along the Highway 51 corridor, businesses in South Tipton have been OPENING.

But so that we don't take this entirely out of context, let me clue you in a bit, so that you can "Get the BIG PICTURE".

After the I-69 corridor is built, Millington will more or less cease to be relevant. People won't be buying gas there, they won't be buying their groceries there. They won't stop to have their cars fixed. They'll get on the interstate and remark about how convenient it is that they don't have to wade through sixteen signal lights to go five miles and soon, they'll forget it was even there.

And all these horrible speeders that the city fathers are totally overwrought about will become a thing of the past.

As they say in meh-hee-co,

Hasta-la-bye-bye, Millington!

Glad I can leave you with such a pleasant thought, Amigo.

name_as_it_appears wrote:

<quoted text>
They did. It's a yellow sign at every entrance to the city, on every road, stating 'Traffic Laws are Photo Enforced'.

Too vague and non-specific.

I have something more.....useful in mind. Sort of a technological solution.

Multiply 50x297 then divide by 5. That is how much an hour this machine cranks out.

This is not about reducing speed actually in the city. If you check speed where the traffic really is, nothing has changed. I can only guess that the cameras are not especially useful in areas where the cars are so close together than you need a cutting torch to separate them.

Really, this is just about running the same old speed trap they did for years. Nothing has changed.

Maybe the local chamber of commerce can 'help' remind the city where the money comes from?

TheInFamOusElGuapo wrote:

<quoted text>
Too vague and non-specific.
I have something more.....useful in mind. Sort of a technological solution.
Multiply 50x297 then divide by 5. That is how much an hour this machine cranks out.
This is not about reducing speed actually in the city. If you check speed where the traffic really is, nothing has changed. I can only guess that the cameras are not especially useful in areas where the cars are so close together than you need a cutting torch to separate them.
Really, this is just about running the same old speed trap they did for years. Nothing has changed.
Maybe the local chamber of commerce can 'help' remind the city where the money comes from?

Oh, so you need to be babysat and handheld seeing a sign telling you that Speeding could result in you receiving a fine? How is that different from speeding and being pulled over by a patrol officer? You've know that was a possibility since receiving your license.

MORESO, That Van has a ten mile-per-hour grace period. TEN. Go into Bartlett or Germantown and pass a patrol car at ten over, and see the result. It will be more costly than Fifty Dollars. Simply slowing down to a reasonable five over isn't that much to ask.(If you don't like the Speed Law, contact your local and state law makers maybe? Voice your opinion! Be heard, write Letter to the Editors to all your local media! Be the new grass root Tea Party Activist for speed laws!

MORESO AGAIN, Bartlett hasn't been a 'speed trap'? You must not have known Bartlett about six years ago. Germantown hasn't been a 'speed trap'? You must not frequent often. Collierville hasn't been a 'speed trap'? You must rarely see Carriage Crossing. Shelby County Sheriff's don't enforce Speed Laws throughout 385/51/Ral-Mill/Brunswick/Arli ngton/Lakeland? Surely you aren't that absent.

Now, multiply 8x297, and that is more accurate of how much the city receives per civil citation.(That is paid, anyways.) The city receives at avg.,$8 per $50 cite. The rest stays with that company in Arizona to pay for 'upkeep' and 'admin costs'. If you think that's a cash cow in the river of revenue, you are sadly mistaken.

And by all means, if you are NSA headed to Tipton County, feel free to take the roads east outside the city, to reach 51 north of the city line.

It's not that I don't respect your right to your opinion, I just think it's crap and self-sided, sir.

TheInFamOusElGuapo wrote:

<quoted text>
In the last year my family spent in excess of eleven thousand dollars, according to my financial records (technology is such a great thing, isn't it?) in Millington, most of which was at locally owned and operated businesses.
Without exception, each and every one of those businesses has a competitor in some other place where we are coming from, or going to, while we run our business. Millington is that "spot in the middle" that, as a matter of convenience, we stopped to pick up what we needed.
But please do not make a mistake on this, it is not a necessity that we do business there.
And going forward, we won't.
My bet is that once more than a few of the marines and sailors at NSA get their greetings in the mail, many of them will also find Tipton area businesses much more appreciative of their commerce and trade.
In case you haven't noticed, while the businesses around Millington have been shuttered, especially along the Highway 51 corridor, businesses in South Tipton have been OPENING.
But so that we don't take this entirely out of context, let me clue you in a bit, so that you can "Get the BIG PICTURE".
After the I-69 corridor is built, Millington will more or less cease to be relevant. People won't be buying gas there, they won't be buying their groceries there. They won't stop to have their cars fixed. They'll get on the interstate and remark about how convenient it is that they don't have to wade through sixteen signal lights to go five miles and soon, they'll forget it was even there.
And all these horrible speeders that the city fathers are totally overwrought about will become a thing of the past.
As they say in meh-hee-co,
Hasta-la-bye-bye, Millington!
Glad I can leave you with such a pleasant thought, Amigo.

WELL WRITTEN!!! Bravo!

I have lived in Millington all of my life. All of it. It used to be a place that I was proud to say I am from. Now, it's just a pathetic little poorly-planned speed trap between stuff people want to get to. It doesn't have to be that way.

Idiots like our Board of Aldermen have no vision. They wouldn't know opportunity if it kicked them in the seat of their pants. How long has the City of Millington had sole conservatorship of the north side of the old Navy base? What, 13 years now? What have they done with it? Nothing, nada, nil, nicht. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that there is a world of opportunity there. Something like 4 square miles of open land including a jetport with an 8,000 foot runway and a ready-built warehosue district and these nimrods can't attract SOMETHING? ANYTHING? They claim that spending a bucket of money on some silly road that connects the old base with highway 51 (and 385?) will breathe new life into the area. Yeah, right. It'll go from literally NOTHING to a boomtown overnight just because you built a road? Save the money. Trust me, if you haven't done anything by now, wasting federal tax dollars isn't going to light a fire under your lazy butts.

Of course not. You've got a wad of senseless grandstanders like Barger and Pike, who know nothing about development sitting there on their tumbs while the city circles the drain.

But they can spend tax money on a little machine that records the speeds of people unfortunate enough to have to live on one side of this puddle of spit and work on teh other. While other towns make the news with progress and civic pride, Millington makes the news as a place to avoid ... where the population has to apologize to the listener when they announse that they are from "That redneck little speed trap of Milongton with the dilapidated old Navy base and the speed cameras." Sickening.

I live just east of the city. I drive to Atoka to do my shopping and dining for a numbers of reasons, first and foremost because I don't want to contribute to a town with so little vision and/or respect for itself.

Thanks.

This is the wrong economy to play this kind of game. Whatever their motives are, their timing couldn't be worse. Hodges seemed to be on the right track, but I think he's outnumbered.

Topix has deleted some of my posts so I won't be able to respond to some of the comments made in this thread.

Millington has become a speed trap and I have spent my last dollar in their town.

don't live there travel thru now and then never speeding. i live in another speed trap north of tou folks. question seems to be money or safety. seems to me if it was safety it would go against driving record or insurance. first thing our finest tell u is that it doesen't . speeds up the revenue cause there is not a reason to show up and fight just send the dollars, all we want any way!!!

Johnny,I agree with you,make the officers earn there money that is what we pay our taxes for,not to pay other people to do their jobs.

I got a camera ticket on 385. It was right when the speed changes from 65 to 55 and I wasnt paying attention. Totally my fault. got the ticket in the mail a few weeks later. Then I lost it. I called Millington PD and they said they didnt know who was running the vans but they were not responsible for them. Checked my name and DL number and had no tickets on their records. So then I called Memphis PD and got the same answer. Then I called Shelby County and got the same answer. I looked it up online and the vans are out of Indiana or something and they do not report back to any of the local PDs.

name wrote:

I got a camera ticket on 385. It was right when the speed changes from 65 to 55 and I wasnt paying attention. Totally my fault. got the ticket in the mail a few weeks later. Then I lost it. I called Millington PD and they said they didnt know who was running the vans but they were not responsible for them. Checked my name and DL number and had no tickets on their records. So then I called Memphis PD and got the same answer. Then I called Shelby County and got the same answer. I looked it up online and the vans are out of Indiana or something and they do not report back to any of the local PDs.

Thats interesting... If Millington and Shelby County had nothgin to do with them or possibly aren't aware of them, I wonder if they should have even be here. Who does the money go to?

Can anyone just park a van and get a camera- print it up on some paper tell how much the fine is and sit back and wait on a check... Might be a scam....Maybe WREG needs to look into this...