The town had 250 people and 50 police officers.
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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The shocking part is where it says that's only 5X the cops for a town that size. Wtf? One or two should suffice in a town that small. We have a town here with just over a thousand, and they have no city cops at all.
10 cops means 1-2 on shift at a time, once you figure in days off, needing people working 24 hours a day, a leadership position or two, and people out sick/vacation, 10 people isn't as many as it sounds.
However, even 10 is a huge amount for a town of 250. I think most towns of 1-2k people generally don't have a department and usually rely on county police.
Yeah, I had a town of 15k and 5 miles up the road we had one around 300. They just contracted ours out. 300 peoples' taxes is not a lot, why waste it on police who will what, catch that one kid every once in a while, or have to throw a drunk out of the only bar? Not worth it.
typical amount of police in countries vary between 0.1-0.7% of the population with most having around 0.2-0.4%
I lived in a town like this (USA). We had no cops and the fire department was volunteer only. I recall a house burning down to the cement foundation over a couple hours, fire dept came by to put out the ruins. No one was hurt.
Can't imagine having 2 cops in that town, let alone 50. No money.
The post office used to be in the same building as the bank (until the bank burnt down). They moved into the lower floor of a house.
house burning down
the bank burnt down
That place seems to have a fire problem
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Jfc 😅
half of the department’s 50 officers "had been suspended, demoted, terminated or dishonorably discharged from their previous law enforcement jobs," the station said, citing personnel records obtain under a Freedom of Information request.
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And big town cops... and medium town cops. Goddammit cops, ruining towns for everyone!
"You cops sure are a contentious people."
Here in Minnesota we have several "Speed Trap Towns" along country roads and highways with 50+ mph speed limits where suddenly the speed limit drops to 30 and there's a cop hiding behind the bush.
Yep. Wisconsin too. Learned very quickly that cruise control set to 1 mph under the limit is the way. There’s quite a few towns on the way out to Taylors Falls that pretty much always have a cop sitting in the same spot just waiting for out-of-towners, and it’s remarkable how successful they are.
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Small towns want every scrap of income they can get and tickets are part of it. There’s also a motivated synergy there between cop and a small town with no other crime really happening because it justifies the small town even having a cop on payroll.
Yup, they deliberately setup drops in speed limits for the sole purpose of catching out of towners
God I started a new long distance deive for work recently and its half on a rural highway. Like 10 tiny towns over arpund 60 miles.
Every one...
Outside speed limit is 55 mph
Hit town, 45 mph
30 feet later, 35 mph
2 blocks in the middle, 30 mph
Back to 35 mph
35 mph feels like it lasts riiiiiight up to the edge of the town.
And half the time the first drop going in and the 55mph sign going out are obscured by overgrown trees.
Its just designed to catch people traveling the corridor.
Are there any actual dwellings around the road? If so, those speed limits are quite reasonable or even on the high end. In Europe it is 50 km/h (30 mph) if there are houses around a road, and 30 km/h (18 mph) for actual town streets. The streets are also specifically designed to be narrower and there are a lot of traffic calming measures to make drivers naturally want to drive the speed limit. This way it is safe & pleasant for townsfolk to cross the street, the town doesn't end up split in two by the highway, and if you're a sane driver you won't get fined even if you accidentally miss a speed limit sign.
Perhaps the best solution is to make the highways go around towns completely to avoid all of this. (and then we can also work towards banning cars in populated areas)
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I'm the asshole who will drive 4 hours just to make the cop show up to court over it.
My state doesn't have absolute speed limits, so if you can show that the speed was safe for the road conditions, you can get off.
Or just get a paralegal to file discovery paperwork. It usually costs the city more to do that than the ticket is worth, so they'll drop it.
It feels like paying racist assholes is counter productive. Especially when you have to pay settlements.
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It's never very clear in the US if the speed limit is locally a thing, a suggestion, or completely ignored. As a visitor, it's always problematic. I wish they got that sorted out.
Yeah, I live in small-town US where many residents have complained about speeding in areas with heavy pedestrian use. In response, the local PD was quoted on the front page of the paper saying they don't have time to enforce speed limits. A few years later and they were again on the front page saying that they don't have time or equipment to enforce parking regulations. So here they're somewhere between suggestion and completely ignored, but the next town over is filled with speed cameras and highway patrol sitting in wait to meet their quota...both towns on the same road.
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It is a thing. Now, locals might be ignoring it, but that's because they know where it is unlikely they will get caught. If you're not a local it is better to keep it or at most drive the same speed as everyone else.
I've been in Poland recently and the speed signs seem to be designed to make very hard to maintain them, like they want to have easy way to ticket anyone.
Like you're driving, there's 70km/h then 50 then 70, then 90, then 50 (pedestrian crossing, it is always 50) then 90 and all within short distance. I noticed that many drivers either go faster over 50 zones or if they in 90 zone go slower so they don't have to reduce speed from 90 to 50.
In US (or at least in California) seems to be more stable. So you have 35mph on roads, 25 on residential areas (usually you don't go through them unless you're reaching your destination) and 65 on freeway. There might be some signs that modify the speed (make it higher or lower depending on condition of the road) but it feels justified.
I also visited Czechia and their speed limits seem to be more reasonable and easier to follow.
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That's a huge part of why some of these towns stay afloat. Your ticket is revenue for their population 12 town. It's for sure a racket. I still remember the $500 ticket I got in Beaver, Utah for going 10 over...
It's legalized banditry.
$500 for beaver sounds expensive.
Depends on the beaver
$500 for a ticket is wild. I think the worst I have gotten (when I first started driving 30 years ago) was like $200, and that was 25 over.
Brookville Indiana.
Got busted drinking a beer while canoeing. While doing my community service, the locals told us the bend in the river with the guy drinking at a picnic table was actually a cop. He cheers every boat going down the river and if you cheers back, he radios you description down river to his buddies and they pull you out of the river.
There was another group in our "substance abuse class" that said they were camping and lit a joint around the camp fire and the local police came out of the woods in tactical gear and night vision goggles to cite them.
Fuck that place
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Sounds more like a problem with how they've structured their taxes if they NEED to fine people...
Why do you want to defend cops fucking people over?
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Small town cops looking for 1% less white skinned people and even a hint of a foreign accent.
No sympathy to drivers of objectively environmentally worse modes of transportation unwilling to follow traffic laws.
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- on the lookout for any minorities.
Let's not pretend obeying the speed limit will save you.
There will be a brief moment of satisfaction when these types all lose their jobs to drones before things get even more dystopian
A small town near me got in deep shit for being small town assholes recently. That and embezzlement. This town is on a major highway to Myrtle Beach. They also prided themselves on the "safety" and "smallness" of their town, while also preying on vacationers.
Their municipal police police would aggressively enforce the speed limits. Every time I had to go through there you'd see someone running speed at nearly every speed zone change. As little as one to two mph over would get you an interaction with them. They also would issue tickets for far more than was normal. Up to 10 over was easily a $400 ticket, when most places would only do $150. They were also kind and polite about it. They'd offer to take payment right then and eliminate the speeding points. Which was the issue.
If you paid there they wouldn't report the ticket. Or the cash. The town kept the money; the town was making about a million a year. You were fined under a safety ordinance and not traffic law. They were also supposed to share portions with the county and state, but didn't. They argued that it was not a traffic violation. This town of barely 700 people had fifteen police just running speed traps.
They eventually were found out, and the municipal police department was heavily curtailed. The county manages speed through there and is nowhere as aggressive about it.
Once got pulled over for doing 25 in a...25. when I raised my eyebrows he said it was "foggy" out. Could see clear as day all the way down the road. I'm white too so it wasn't even a race thing. I get it was a retirement area but ppl really got nothing better to do.
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I never understood why americans seem to feel entitled to drive illegally fast over an already heavily overestimated speed limit on their humongous death machines they call cars.
Speed limits in the U.S. aren't set to any specific standard. 6 lane divided highways and laneless rural roads carry the same speed limit.
Speeds limits are known for being way too high in that country.
Speed limits are routinely posted 30-50% below the actual "maximum safe speed" in my neck of the woods. The US is many things, but it's far from homogenous
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you should have probably put american small town cops as title. Cops have actual training in europe and other places and speed limits or road safety can't be compared either. In the small town I live in cops are very down to earth and are generally fair unless you are being an asshole. Our laws are made so the fine is comparable to the % of speed over the limit and cops don't care much unless you are 5-10% above the limit. This means they go after you if you drive with your head under the arm in cities, but you can go a little above on the highway. We also have car regulation so you don't drive deathtraps that are a safety hazards to OTHER people. Which is why the shit cybertruck is not legal in EU and never will be.
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