Can We Trust The Police To Offer Us The Truth?

According to HPD's MONTHLY INCIDENTS reports from January, February and March of this year, police officers made a total of 532 traffic stops (227, 140 and 165, respectively).  While the reports give no details about the reasons for the stops, each incident is given a street name.  Columbia Street and Columbia Turnpike -- the city's longest stretch of road -- accounted for 80 of those stops, or about 15% of the total, the highest by far for all streets.

During Monday's SAFETY Committee meeting, Captain David Miller claimed that HPD issued "200-250 speeding tickets" in the first quarter of this year, though he wasn't even sure of that range, adding that "it could be more."  Let's try to ignore the laughable fact that HPD's second-in-command showed up to Monday's SAFETY Committee meeting without any hard data related to speeding tickets issued in the first quarter of the year or even for April, the month his HPD report focused on.  Instead, let's assume HPD officers issued 250 speeding tickets issued in January, February and March, shall we?  If we are to believe what Captain Miller claimed off the "top of his head," then essentially half of all of HPD's traffic stops made in the first three months of this year resulted in speeding tickets.  532 stops netted 250 drivers exceeding the 25 mph speed limit.  (Commence laughter!)

Does anyone in their right mind believe this to be true?

Does anyone believe that HPD issued somewhere around 40 speeding tickets to drivers on Columbia Street and Columbia Turnpike in the first three months of this year, or about 13 every month, or about one every other day?  Does David Miller even believe this?

If HPD is issuing 80 or more speeding tickets per month (250 divided by 3) all around town, why is speeding still such a problem? It's almost as if certain drivers are confident that Hudson police officers don't use a radar gun downtown (and they're right).  And why is the serious quality of life issue and problem related to speeding vehicles something that HPD representatives at SAFETY Committee meetings aren't interested in talking about or even prepared to talk about in tangible terms and accurate data?

I'm thinking it's because Margaret Morris's so-called SAFETY Committee is a farce, and HPD knows it is, too.