Wyoming law enforcement (Gillette, Hanna, Byron: travel, jobs, bank)

[boxing437]

My husband is a State Trooper in Wyoming. I guess it depends on where you might be looking at. We first moved to Jackson,Wy and eventually ended up in Alpine,we found it to be cheaper. Alpine is about a 30 minute drive from Jackson. As far as the department goes, I know alot of the guy's are pretty close on the department,throughout the whole state. I could tell you a little more if I knew approx. where you might be looking at moving. This area is beautiful!

[Jared]

Well, they're all still cops, if that helps.


But anyway, I've heard WY cops compared favorably to SD cops, so that's a plus.

Coming from the Seattle area, it's been nice for me just to see a whole lot less cops around. Sundance is the county seat, so while I do see the local PD, county sherriffs, and the staters, it's still not as much of a 'presence' as what I was used to, and so I can't complain too much.

[MHT]

I have nothing but good things to say about the law enforecement in our area. We did have a "bad apple" at the local level but not any longer. The local p.d., sheriff's, highway patrol are great. I'm sure there are some who don't think so but from my personal experience I have been pleased.

[RockyMtnr]

Watch your stuff a mile 25 on I-80. It's an area known as "The Sisters" and HP likes to sit in the middle. If you ever jump off at mile 18 onto "The Kemmerer Highway", odds are you'll get nabbed - really hard not to speed on that long, 30mile stretch. In Evanston, a cop for every car is traditional - and they just keep hiring more - but over here, we often need that sort of presence as the border to Utah is 3 miles away and Utah is a 3.2 beer state and here in WYO, we gots beer! This town used to be rougher and tougher than it is now - and it's still not really for the squeamish.

[grimreaper]

I must disagree with you on why you get pulled over for things like swerving and lights out. Cops don't have quotas, I know this for a fact.

But the reasons you cite are legit reasons a cop can pull you over. You would be surprised at how many times pulling someone over for a light out results in an arrest for a prior offense. It happens all the time. Swerving early in the morning and failing to signal may appear like a drunk driver, and if LE didn't see the deer, they don't know what's why the driver swerved. Would folks rather they ignore swerving drivers that could be drunk early in the AM? Drivers out at that hour are frequenltly driving drunk.

Sometimes our reactions to what we perceive as LE being a PITA only makes it worse for us. You don't get pulled over for nothing; it's not *legal* to do that.

In WY we have a ton of drinking (or drugging) and driving going on....I have personal experience with how that often turns out.....my user name should give you some idea of why.

Sign me,

The Grim Reaper
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Originally Posted by jetta2337

local police- You got your putz buckets as in all forces. I was pulled over one morning for a light out on my plates. I was in a company truck and I was grilled over and over. I was headed to the gym and they didnt believe me and followed me to the gym. They have a number of tickets they have to write a month and you can tell when they dont have that number reached. A co-worker just got a ticket for swerving to miss a deer on the road. For reckless driving and failure to signal. And this was around 4 in the morning with no one out on the road headed to work. So they have there ups and downs many people think they could do a better job but all and all fair.

.

[sunsprit]

while I have no reason to doubt the above post's comment re "quota" are his experience, I can assure you from personal knowledge that it is absolutely true that the departments do have quotas.

Case in point, our area received some fed funds for enhanced speed enforcement. It was to pay for overtime to the deputies to set up radar traps around the area. There was, I'm told, a performance requirement which was fulfilled by an increase in speeding tickets written.

So the deputies got to set up shop and had to write a lot tickets to justify the program or lose the funds ... which paid for their overtime hours.

That, folks ... is a quota ... with a personally vested interest in the deputies writing more tickets.

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Funny thing talking about quotas, although I am referring here to CA. My wifes hairdresser's boyfriend is a CHP officer, and I was talking with him Sunday, and he did admit they have quotas. He was telling me that they would write their 6 to 8 tickets early in the shift, then go down to the local pizza place and watch football the rest of the day.

[sunsprit]

I saw the same speed enforcement campaign is Littleton, CO, around the same time as up here.

I got tagged for 10 over the limit on South Santa Fe Drive in an area that I had had a business for many years. I knew that it was heavily patrolled and made a point of being in the RH lane at the speed limit, even though I was being passed rapidly by the rest of traffic. There was no way that the officer could single out or see my vehicle out of the traffic approaching, and he admitted to me that he'd just got a "locked speed" on the radar gun and inferred that I was moving with the group (which he couldn't see).

So, I didn't believe that the officer had a radar clocking on me at the excessive speed, and I went back down to Littleton to contest the ticket.

They must have had a whole bunch of "bad" radar tickets (typical poor radar training/use) that were contested, because I no more than asked to visit with a DA when the clerk pulled out a "plea bargain" already filled out for me. The charge was already reduced to "driving with an obstructed windshield", 0 points and $35.00.

While I'm po'ed that the city was pulling this type of enforcement scam on the public, it was a lot less expensive than another trip or two back to Littleton to defeat the ticket ... so I paid $35 to make the whole thing go away.

I'll bet they depend upon a lot of people to just mail in the speeding ticket fine with their admission signature for their fundraising.

That's not law enforcement for the public good/safety ... that's quota ticket writing.

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

So, I didn't believe that the officer had a radar clocking on me at the excessive speed, and I went back down to Littleton to contest the ticket.

A guy I work with has received 9 tickets in his life...he has fought and won every one of them Just amazing. Even when he was wrong, he still fought and won

[ElkHunter]

I've found that Wyoming Law Enforcement was very fair. Quotas? I don't know if you'd call the quotas, but yes, they'll tell their officers that speed has been a problem, concentrate on speed problems. Or DUI has been a problem, watch for them. but I don't think I'd call that a quota.

recently I was delivering a crew to Decker Coal mine. Now if you are familiar with that area, you know that there is East Decker mine and West Decker mine. They used to drive big coal haulers back and forth across the highway. So out in the middle of nowhere, there's suddenly a 35 mph zone. However, east Decker closed about 6 years ago. so there's no coal haulers crossing the road anymore. 11 pm at night, I dropped off the hill and the Montana trouper was setting down there and got me for 45 in a 35 zone. I said, hey, I was slowing down. he said, when there's a sign that says speed zone ahead, we expect you to be at speed when you pass the sign. he was right of course. But here's the kicker. Because I had Wyoming License plates, "Foreigner" I had to pay on the spot. $55. either that or go to jail until my day in court. Luckily, I had stopped at the ATM and drew out $60 so I could get groceries after I got off shift. If I hadn't done that, I'd have sat in jail in Hardin. Plus, it was Friday night and Monday was a holiday. So I'd have spent Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in Jail on a 10 over ticket. Montana is tough. But truth be known, I was doing 10 over and shouldn't have been.