Sharing Thoughts and Information About Law Enforcement
Beeping Double Standard? We're Not Surprised!
This Just in by Email from Hansville Area Resident:
March 11, 2008 -- A Hansville resident writes to beep4bumps: The other day I was waiting to make a turn onto Hansville Road from Hwy 104 and noticed about 10 people protesting the WASL System. One of the signs said to honk your horn if you were against the WASL. I heard numerous people honking and supporting their cause. At the same time, two Kitsap County Sheriff drove by. I did not see either of them pull anyone over for honking. At least I did not hear the sheriff deputies honking their horn. Have a great day.
This Just in by Email from Hansville Area Resident:
March 11, 2008 -- A Hansville resident writes to beep4bumps: The other day I was waiting to make a turn onto Hansville Road from Hwy 104 and noticed about 10 people protesting the WASL System. One of the signs said to honk your horn if you were against the WASL. I heard numerous people honking and supporting their cause. At the same time, two Kitsap County Sheriff drove by. I did not see either of them pull anyone over for honking. At least I did not hear the sheriff deputies honking their horn. Have a great day.
On Beeping, Sheriff Patrols, Law Enforcement Priorities, Public Trust, Accountability, Spending, and Fairness.... Oh, and Newton's Law, "To every action and equal and opposite reaction."
Commentary by John Hostvedt, beep4bumps.com --
Nov. 23, 2007 -- Not all states have a system of elected county sheriffs. I've always thought this was foolish. Elect the politicians to represent you and they can sift through resumes to hire people with the right qualifications to engage in law enforcement activities. Despite my misgivings, I think we're lucky in Kitsap County. We do have a sheriff with a background in law enforcement and it's a credit to the voters here. But the risk we face of having an elected sheriff who enforces the law using favoritism based on cronyism, political friendships, campaign contributors, and folks with undue influence is a very real danger. Regardless of the flurry of rumors we get at beep4bumps.com, we sincerely hope we're not seeing that play itself out over these ridiculous speed bumps. But if it is, I have a theory about the truth. It always has a way of coming out.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a nearly hour long phone conversation with Undersheriff Dennis Bonneville regarding the speed bumps. I called him because people said they felt the department was harassing motorists for beeping on the speed bumps. I explained to him that I was already hearing the beeping before I started this website, so while it might be fun to take credit, I can't. I'm just a reflection of a community that's had enough. First the phony speed limit signs and the fact that no one was brought up on charges for it, and now a gross manipulation of the Kitsap County Commission by a very narrow-minded group of individuals to get their way. That, by the way, is where our friend Isaac Newton comes in. You can't expect to take an action like this without getting a reaction.
One resident, calling him or herself "Love the Bumps" wrote to tell us: "Are they that big of a deal with everything going on in the world...if people would have been obeying the posted speed this would not have even been an issue..By the way.. thanks for promoting the new noise pollution that I listen to all day and night.. Its just lovely." So to dear Love the Bumps, I only have this to say, "With everything going on in the world, you're worried about a few harmless car horns?" And it made me wonder if Love the Bumps loves them enough to put them on all streets, roads, and highways since there isn't a shred of evidence that tells us speeders reserve their illegal speeding just for Hood Canal Drive and Twin Spits Road.
In our research, we found documents that show that the correct speed limit, at least for Hood Canal Drive, is 40 miles per hour. And to have a limit that's lower tends to degrade respect for the law. I've never in my life learned so much about how speed limits are established. For more, be sure to read a US Department of Transportation Report on raising and lowering speed limits.
And on the topic of respect for the law, there's a lesson in all of this bumpy mess. If there's really some law that says you can't beep your horn on a road to caution others of your presence, then so be it. Write those tickets and we'll be off to the judge. But I think we all, as residents and taxpayers of North Kitsap County, have to ask the fundamental question, is it an appropriate use of law enforcement resources to enforce this obscure law. I've never seen anyone get a ticket or even threatened with a ticket for responding appropriately to the bumper sticker that says, "Honk if you love Jesus." I moved to the wonderful Pacific Northwest some 20 years ago and in my home state of Wisconsin, we had stickers that said, "Honk if you love Cheeses!" We honk to support the troops. We honk to say hello to a neighbor. And we honk when we think someone might not see us coming. The idea that we now have sheriff's deputies on honk patrol, frankly, should be an embarrassment to them and to our county. It reminds me of a tiny and affluent lake community in Wisconsin that incorporated into the Village of Chenequa for tax purposes. After doing so, they hired their own police force. Among the police officer's duties: walk rover while homeowner was away and upon his return, fetch his bags from the limo and deliver them to the door.
Kathy Collings of the department's Detective/Support Services Department, who responded to my request for facts and data from the sheriff's department, said that those working traffic in October gave six or so verbal warnings for honking. And she sent electronic copies of ten tickets issued in the area last month, one of which was for honking. Now I don't know who it is, but who ever you are out there, please read the law very carefully and talk to a judge. I've provided a copy of it below this commentary. The only line I could find that seemed to suggest anything about not using your horn is this: "The driver of a motor vehicle shall when reasonably necessary to insure safe operation give audible warning with his horn but shall not otherwise use such horn when upon a highway." I, for one, would think you'd have to be a little screwy for blowing your horn for no reason while going down a highway. But when making your way over a string of speed bumps as though you were driving through a nursing home parking lot, you'd better give audible warning. That's not a legal opinion, mind you. It's just my rather humble opinion.
Getting back to my phone call with Dennis Bonneville. I asked if he'd find it annoying to have to drive over these bumps every day or multiple times a day and he confessed. He said he'd find it annoying. But he also gave me the standard -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- "we're just doing our job" speech. Yeah, I suppose. But I think we're doing our jobs too. Protecting our roads from getting privatized. Protecting our roads from becoming the extended personal driveways of a few. Could be that a little "toot toot" is sending a message? To be told that the vast majority of citizens supported this really rings hollow in light of all the honking, don't you think? What vast majority was that?
To Sheriff Steve Boyer I have this to say, "First, and foremost get well! I've had physical therapy for injuries and so has my wife and it's no fun. Second, think about whether you're enhancing the public trust and safety of all county residents by trying to nail people with tickets based some obscure state law that most reasonable people have never even heard of. Consider for a moment those other folks who don't have bump-front property and who also pay your salary and who also vote. They are beeping mad that a tiny group of residents whined and whined so that you and the commission would serve up some speed bumps that actually violate the county's own guidelines and a host of others nationwide. And if you have some time, browse the county tax records of folks along those bumpy roads and discover, like I did, how many of them don't claim Washington state as their legal residence. Think they'll be voting in the next sheriff's election?
Most law enforcement agencies don't endorse these devices on collector roads because they make it harder to catch the bad guys. You might want to join us, my friend. And beep for these bumps.
One last side note. My conversation with Dennis Bonneville started a bit stressed but, I feel, ended in a very collegial way. I repeated my position that I don't want an adversarial relationship with the department but that reasonable people have a right to disagree.
But I don't know that I convinced him to join our cause and beep4bumps. He said he really thought it was pretty stupid to think that you could honk your horn at a piece of asphalt on the road and expect it will go away. All I could say was, "Well, we'll see."
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To see October citations written (and redacted) in North Kitsap County, including the single ticket (page 9 of the pdf) referencing the RCW below, click here.
The referenced law below can also be found at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.37.380
