A small Georgia city’s police department wrote more than 130 speeding tickets on a road where it had no jurisdiction, a state agency’s investigation found.
Citations issued on Kildare Road over a two year period by police in the city of Oliver brought in more than $40,000 in fines to its municipal court, WTOC-TV reported.
The television station determined the average ticket was around $342. One driver paid as much as $875 and another agreed to serve 30 hours of community service. That stopped this year when one driver who got pulled over wrote a complaint to the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
The agency's investigating found that Oliver police didn't have the required state permission to use speed-detection devices on that road. The police department in Screven County in southeast Georgia had speed-detection permits for just two other roads within the city limits.
Col. Gary Vowell, who heads the Department of Public Safety, notified Oliver Police Chief Pat Kile in an April 17 letter that "these 132 citations never should have been issued, since the City of Oliver Police Department is not authorized to operate speed detection devices on Kildare Road."
The city's use of speed detectors is now subject to periodic review by the state agency. Vowell also ordered Oliver to quash the 132 citations. It's unclear if that ever happened.
Oliver Police Chief Pat Kile declined the TV station’s request for comment and referred a reporter to his attorney, who did not return a phone message.
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