Damascus’ attorney fears speed-trap rap

Sanctions likely, he tells city leaders

CONWAY — The city attorney for Damascus said Monday that he expects a prosecutor to rule Wednesday that the town is operating a speed trap under state law.

Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland asked the Arkansas State Police in June to investigate whether the town of about 385 residents operates a speed trap along a four-lane stretch of U.S. 65, a popular route for people driving to Conway, Branson or Greers Ferry Lake. A section of Arkansas 124 also goes through Damascus, which lies in Faulkner and Van Buren counties.

Hiland has not publicly disclosed his decision, but City Attorney Beau Wilcox advised the Damascus City Council recently of what to expect after conferring with Hiland. Wilcox said he did not know what sanctions Hiland plans to order but said, “I don’t get the impression from Cody [that] he’s going to be removing the Police Department from patrolling on Highway 65.”

The prosecutor is to review the state police’s investigation before deciding whether the town violated the law. Sanctions can include ordering the town to stop patrolling affected highways or ordering the town to pay all or part of future revenue from such traffic violations to a county fund for public schools.

Contacted Monday, Hiland said only, “We anticipate releasing the finding" Wednesday.

Wilcox said he will talk with the City Council and the town’s mayor again after he learns what the sanction will be, but he said there “is a very good chance that the city’s desire [will be] to get an injunction and to challenge the constitutionality of the statute.”

“My issue is with that constitutional issue and the [lack of] preciseness of the statute. I have absolutely no quarrel” with the work of the prosecutor’s office, Wilcox said. “I think it’s a very, very flawed statute in the way it’s written.”

Wilcox called the statutes, Arkansas Code Annotated 12-8-401 through 403, “very vague and difficult to implement and in some ways inequitable.”

Hiland and Wilcox agreed it was best to ask the state police to investigate after both men got calls complaining about traffic citations issued in Damascus.

The town generally has three or four full-time police officers, including the chief, and usually has two or three part-time officers, Wilcox has said.

He also has said that speed limits of 65 mph along U.S. 65 drop to 45 mph through the main part of Damascus and are “posted at the north and south ends of the city very

clearly.”

“Damascus has no stoplights, and the sheer volume and itinerant nature of traffic through town has to be managed for the safety of residents and the other motorists,” Wilcox said in June.

Under state law, abuse of police power refers to “the exercise of police power to enforce criminal and traffic laws for the principal purpose of raising revenue for the municipality and not for the purpose of public safety and welfare.” The law applies to second-class cities and incorporated towns that have part of a state highway passing through them.

The law provides that a city is in violation if its revenue from traffic fines and costs related to its local citations exceeds 30 percent of the town’s total expenses, less capital expense and debt service, in the preceding year; or if more than 50 percent of local misdemeanor tickets issued on a state highway are for motorists driving 10 miles or less too fast.