If you have ever traveled from Branson to Little Rock, there is a chance you have either been pulled over in Damascus or seen someone who was. After determining that the town is a speed trap, the prosecutor in the area says that he has had enough.
Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland has officially barred the municipality’s police department from writing tickets, after an investigation by Little Rock television station KTHV found that officers had written over 1,500 speeding tickets in a year on a small stretch of US Highway 65 that flows through the town.
“I am not unmindful of the need of the City of Damascus to regulate traffic within its jurisdictional limits,” said Hiland in a released statement. “The residents of the city should not be forced to endure a lack of public safety service as a result of the police department having improperly abused its police power.”
Today’s THV reports that in their findings, the majority of the tickets written were to people from out of town, who weren’t familiar with the changing speed limits that can drop as much as fifteen miles per hour in some areas.
While officers in the city can respond to public safety calls, any officer that writes a speeding ticket could face misdemeanor charges themselves for violating Hiland’s order.