October 11, 2014 at 1:52 PM
State to toss speeding tickets written while cops sped past
Posted by Beth Kaiman
The Wenatchee World
WENATCHEE —
State Patrol Chief John Batiste will throw away speeding tickets given near Cashmere earlier this week after his officers didn’t cite up to eight police officers — and the wife of another — who blasted through a speed trap Tuesday and Wednesday.
“It was a matter of “simple fairness,” said Bob Calkins, State Patrol spokesman.
The speeding officers were headed to a drug-recognition conference in Chelan.
Agencies whose employees were known to be speeding are the Auburn Police Department, the Seattle Police Department and the State Patrol. In addition, Calkins said,
a trooper pulled over one woman who was let go with a warning after she told the trooper that her husband was a trooper.
Calkins said he did not know how many tickets were given out Tuesday and Wednesday to non-law-enforcement drivers.
“There weren’t many written on Wednesday because the troopers were fundamentally uncomfortable with what was going on anyway,” Calkins said. “They saw the inequity. They were still stopping people, but they gave them warnings.”
The speeding-ticket reprieve applies to anyone who got a ticket between mid-morning and mid-afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday on Highway 2/97 between Cashmere and Wenatchee.
Batiste made that decision late Friday morning in the wake of a Web video that recorded State Patrol troopers deciding not to give tickets to speeding law-enforcement officers on Wednesday, Calkins said.
The video was recorded by an Arlington man who was also driving on the highway Wednesday during the State Patrol’s emphasis patrols, which also happened Tuesday.
snip
Reply With Quote
Connect With Us