Kiowa, Oklahoma Speed Traps

I was also unfairly ticketed by the Kiowa police and I plan to write a letter to the Oklahoma attorney general to inform them of this speed trap. My story is like countess others. I saw the signs going from 60 to 50 to 40 to 35 rapidly and I slowed to between 40 and 45. I was pulled over by a black explorer and told I was going 55mph in a 40mph zone. I don’t think he had a radar. The time was 4:30 a.m. The officer also tried to provoke me, which was scary. Something needs to done about this evil. On the handout he gave me they threaten to add $500 or more to the $167 ticket if not paid on time. I read from others that it is useless to protest as this is the town’s primary income stream.

I had traveled through Kiowa for a job I was doing in Atoka and the roads were a solid sheet of ice. Christmas day 2010 as I drove through Kiowa, there was an officer actually pulling people over on the shoulder and issuing citations on the ice where they could not get back on the highway because it was so slick. The state had salted the right lane some and there were wet tracks in the ice to drive on but the left lane was EXTREMELY slick. I slowed to 37 mph to pass the officer and his current "victim" and was immediately pulled over and ticketed for failure to merge into the left lane for the officer. Here in Oklahoma, as in other states, there is a law that requires a person to merge and I quote" if it is safe to do so". The other option the law gives me as the driver is to slow down which I did. I chose to contest this in the "court" room in Kiowa where I was told and I’m not kidding when I say this: You are correct concerning the Oklahoma law but we still find you guilty. I had 5 other people in the vehicle with me to verify this is true. KIOWA IS A REVENUE MAKING SPEED TRAP REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE LAW SAYS AND THEY CARRY A GUN.

I was traveling alone from Missouri back to my home state Texas when what I remember as a black charger came up behind me with lights. This town is sooo small you could blink and miss it & the posted speed signs seem a short distance from another.After the officer took my license and was gone for a few minutes he had me step out of the car in the cold to sign my tickets and decided to impound my car,leaving me in the one horse town with a dead cell phone. Apparently my DL was suspended in Tx. for a ticket I was unaware of. Okay thats standard procedure but the fact is in Texas they usually write you a ticket and let you go. He also went through my car w/o permission and questioned a medicine bottle in my car that belonged to a handicapped friend of mine down in Corpus Christi. The whole experiance was just aweful & I ended up spending my Valentines Day in thier neighboring town…Then someone drove overnight and in the snow to get my car out of the impond all the way from Corpus Christi,Tx. and they would NOT give him the car even tho it was in his name cause they wanted me to be there to ensure no one had provided me with another car to drive that side of the Red River/Oklahoma…The attempts were pathetic to keep us in thier town…It was tooooo LIFETIME movie weird for us…!!! DRIVER UNDER THE SPEED LIMIT IN KIOWA or any town on 69/75

Speed limits go from 40 to 60 within a few hundred yards, and back down from 60 to 40 just as quickly. I completely missed going down to 40 and got stopped for "Reckless Driving." Oh, please. I haven’t gotten a ticket in over 20 years. Such a speed trap–my word!

Here’s how you know its a speed trap:
When you pay, they offer you two options:
(1) Pay the ticket
(2) For an additional $100 more, they offer you a “grace period option” where if you do not get another ticket for 90 days, the ticket will not show up on your insurance.

Here’s a tip:
It’s very difficult to get someone to actually pick up the number for the Court Clerk printed on the ticket: 918-432-6244. So call the Police Station at 918-432-5564; the person who answers the police line can literally see the two court clerks from the police desk. The good thing is that they can take payments over the phone for credit cards and debit cards; just remember to get a Authentication Number to confirm the transaction (they will not mail you a receipt).