Colfax, Washington Speed Traps

The city of Colfax has always been noted for speed trapping. They will also pick you up if you are 2 miles over….OR pick you up for speeding when you aren’t. It is their word against yours and unfortunately…the officer is always right. There is a hill coming down in to the city. It starts out 55 then a sign that says slow down to 35..then 35 then slow down to 25 then 25. The city policeman sits at the bottom of the hill and waits before you hit the 25 slow down sign. I had returned 2 of my teen grandchildren to Spokane and was bringing 2 back home with me. I had thought I had left my purse in the car, only to find later on I had left home without it so I was really watching my speed all the way up and back. I WAS NOT SPEEDING! I have gotten tickets I deserved but this one I did not. I had slowed down to 37 by the time I hit the 35 sign and 37 because by the roadside speed monitors my speedometer is over 3 miles an hr at that speed. There were 2 cars ahead of me and one following….after the last car, the policeman turned around and followed with his lights on…I pulled over to let him by cause I thought he was after someone in front and he pulled in behind me. He came up to the car and asked if I knew why I was being pulled over. I said, "not really." He said "so you didn’t know you were going 52 in a 35?" I said, " no, I certainly was not." I told him I had been watching my speed very carefully and explained my situation with car speedometer and my purse. I told him I deserved a ticket for not having my license on me but not for speeding and he said and I quote " Are you calling me a liar?" I said, "No, I am telling you for a fact, I was not speeding." He walked away and gave me the ticket for speeding which was $210.00 I called to see if I could get it reduced as I am on a very fixed income and the lady told me if I wanted to pay double, the ticket would be removed and not go on my record otherwise I could write a letter asking the judge to lower my fine and they would let me know. I said so, if I was rich enough to pay double, the ticket would not be reported but since my income was too small to do so, the ticket goes on my record, am I correct?" She said, "Yes mam, that is true!" Well, that tells me…that little city is not only corrupt but making a great deal of revenue! Next time I will video tape and record with my phone!!!!

Not only do you have the Colfax City Police, Washington State Patrol and Whitman County Sheriff that will write you a ticket but also, I have actually seen them, the Washington State Department of Fish & Game patrolling and writing tickets. The Washington State Patrol will ask their Game Department for help on busy college weekends.

Driving through this town at anything other than the posted speed limit is an assured way to get a ticket. While officers have the ability to practice discretion, they choose not to, instead always giving a ticket and never a warning.

5/2008

Was going north towards Colfax, when passed cop going southbound. Cars were passing us, while we were going the speed limit. Cop went right by them and turned around behind us and pulled us over. He told us we were speeding, when cars were passing us. We got pulled over for going ten miles over the speed limit, and we were going the posted speed limit. The cars that passed us prior to the cop were speeding not us.

Speed through town is 25 MPH. I got pulled over for 27 MPH. Also just outside of town there is a 25 MPH sign and within feet, a 45 MPH sign.If you are not completely past the 45MPH sign you can be stopped in between the signs for speeding, even though the new speed is in sight.