What comes to mind when you see the words ‘speed trap?’ Barney Fife, perhaps?
Yeah, you know what they are. A cop car parked behind a sign or tree just off the highway, typically at the edge of a small town in an area where speed limit suddenly drops from say, 65 mph to 45.
Gotcha!
Way back in the olden days when I was in college driving from Abilene, Texas, back home to Fort Smith, Ark., I learned to be extra cautious when I drove through Stringtown, OK.
Stringtown was notorious for handing out speeding tickets to drivers passing through town on U.S. 69 and unaware that speed limit changed abruptly. It already had a reputation as a speed trap, and my dad warned me about it before I made my first trip.
By 2014, most everyone who didn’t hail from Stringtown had had enough. It was revealed that 76 percent of the town’s revenue — $483,000 in 2013 — was generated by traffic tickets, far more than the 50 percent cap set by the state legislature.
So, the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety announced that Stringtown police officers no longer could enforce traffic laws on state and federal highways.
Turns out that Stringtown was a repeat offender. It also drew state sanctions in the 1980s, three decades before the latest action. Read about it in this 2014 article from The Oklahoman.
But speed traps live on today in other communities across the state.
I drove through one in Muldrow, OK, just this past weekend. I saw a Muldrow police SUV hidden behind some barrels in the median of I-40 shortly before 7 am on Sunday.
Yes, Muldrow city officers were patrolling the Interstate! Maybe a quarter mile of I-40 goes through Muldrow city limits, which apparently gives their officers the right to patrol that stretch and hand out traffic tickets to protect their citizens.
I wasn’t even aware that stretch of I-40 was within the city limits of the city of Muldrow because it looks like a fairly rural area. Fortunately, I did not get pulled over — this time.
But the fact that he was out there monitoring traffic before sunup along the short stretch of Interstate that passed through the city limits really irked me.
So, I called the Muldrow Police Department on Monday to ask if they patrol the Interstate and why.
“Yes, because it is part of our city limits,” I was told.
OK, my next question was “does the city have an agreement with the state that allows it to patrol the Interstate in place of Highway Patrol?”
“I have no idea,” she said. “You will have to ask someone else that question.”
I’ve read that the state has to authorize communities to patrol state and federal highways that pass through their city limits, although I wasn’t sure that’s accurate. So I looked it up.
Here’s what I found in an online search of Oklahoma law:
“The Commissioner may designate any portion of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, and those portions of the federal-aid primary highways and the state highway system which are located within the boundaries of and on the outskirts of a municipality for special traffic-related enforcement by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Division and issue a written notice to any other law enforcement agency affected thereby. Upon receipt of such notice, the affected law enforcement agency shall not regulate traffic nor enforce traffic-related statutes or ordinances upon such designated portion of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways or such designated portions of the federal-aid primary highways and the state highway system without prior coordination and written approval of the Commissioner.”
I’ll translate: The state highway commissioner can forbid municipalities from enforcing traffic laws on state and federal highways.
Muldrow’s next door neighbors in Roland also patrol their stretch of I-40, according to my friend and lifelong Roland resident Frank Day. In fact, I found this story about Roland’s well deserved speed trap reputation from a 1999 edition of The Oklahoman.
Reddit users provided many more known speed traps. “Asher, Big Cabin, Savanah, Calera… really any small town with a highway through it,” offered a user who goes by FakeMikeMorgan.
Anyway, small town speed traps always remind me of Deputy Barney Fife and his “Checkpoint Chickie” speed trap in Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show back in the day. Watch a clip below.
I’m asking readers to submit their least favorite speed traps from around Oklahoma — and beyond. I’ll add them to this post and we can compile a list to help our fellow travelers in the future.
Consider it a service, like flashing your lights at ongoing vehicles after you pass a cop-in-waiting.
You’re welcome.
Here a speed trap contribution from Inona Harness via her son, Casey. Waukomis, OK, which is due south of Enid. Thank you, Inona!
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