ADA COUNTY, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Boiseans often talk of needing to slow down on Chinden Boulevard to avoid what they consider the enthusiastic Garden City Police enforcement of the speed limit.
Garden City Police Chief Rick Allen told the Idaho Press he’s not aware of his department issuing any tickets for going a mere 5 mph above the speed limit. However, the Garden City Police Department did make $67,643 from speeding tickets in 2021, more than more-populous neighbors Meridian ($64,929) and Eagle ($6,276), according to Idaho Supreme Court data.
“We don’t enforce traffic laws for revenue,” Allen said. “It’s just like every other police department out there. It’s our primary goal to lower the number of accidents which causes injuries to the citizens in and around Garden City.”
Garden City traffic accident stats:
The highest number of accidents in Garden City is around Chinden Boulevard and Glenwood Street, Allen said. Many accidents are related to factors like following too closely and inattentiveness.
In 2021, Garden City police responded to 248 traffic collisions, a 21% increase from 2020, according to the police department’s annual report.
The report attributed the increase to people returning to work after the COVID-19 pandemic made working from home more common, as well as a population increase in the Treasure Valley.
That year, there were two fatality accidents in Garden City and police issued 5,053 traffic citations. Over 40% of those were speeding tickets.
In 2022, Garden City police revenue from speeding charges fell to $57,972. Meridian, a city that is over 10 times its size, made $62,993. Eagle, a city that has almost 20,000 more people than Garden City, still only made $9,717.
“If we see violations, we enforce the law,” Allen said.
Allen said Garden City police encourage people to make right turns in and out of businesses, which is often safer than turning left on a two-way roadway. He said he encourages people to obey all laws.
“We have a large number of accidents on Chinden and Glenwood. Speed in conjunction with inattention and following too close are the primary cause of the accidents,” Allen said in a follow-up statement. “As a result of the high number of accidents we have on these two major thoroughfares our department places a significant emphasis on traffic safety.”
No quotas, area police officials say.
Meridian Police Cpl. Randall Goodspeed said the main reason why Meridian Police write citations is not to pad numbers but to reduce crashes. He said crashes cause property damage and injuries and fatalities.
“I don’t have a quota. I can write as many as I want,” he said. “We don’t have a certain number that’s set for us to reach every month or every day or whatever. We don’t do that. We just identify a violation and address it when we see it.”
In Eagle, Operations Sgt. Justin Elliott said the goal is to slow people down coming off the highways. He supervises the transportation enforcement team, which looks for traffic violators and responds to crashes.
The team wrote 315 speeding tickets in 2022.
“We don’t tell the officers when they should and should not write a citation, but we also have a large amount of crashes,” Elliott said. “When our guys write citations, we don’t think about how much money goes to the city or to the county or anything. We just write them.”
In the last four years, there were 1,187 crashes involving 2,368 vehicles in Eagle, he said.
Elliott said there was a person driving 116 mph in a 55 mph zone, someone going 68 mph in a 35 mph zone and two others going over 90 mph in a 55 mph zone.
“My biggest thing is the speed limit is a speed limit. ... That is the absolute maximum that you’re supposed to go,” Elliott said. “We’re driving around 5,000-pound missiles.”
Where does speeding ticket revenue go?
Speeding tickets are never fun for the person receiving them. And last year, over $6 million was collected in speeding ticket fees, according to the Idaho Supreme Court. Of that, almost $1 million went to the state’s Peace Officer Standard and Training fund.
An additional $816,000 went to Idaho’s highway fund and $408,000 went to the public school income fund.
Unlike some other parts of the country, there are no automated red-light cameras in the Treasure Valley. Last year, Kevin Miller of KIDO Talk Radio wrote an article suggesting installing such cameras to cut the number of red-light runners, who can be speeding.
“The other solution would be to have more police monitoring stoplights, but there aren’t enough police officers to do that efficiently,” Miller wrote. “I doubt any politician would bring up the red light camera solution due to the feared reaction such a move would evoke.”
Regardless, drivers would have to get a lot worse in Garden City for it to overtake the No. 1 spot. Boise made $187,000 on speeding tickets in 2021 and $147,000 in 2022.
Matt Konvalinka, sergeant with Boise’s motorcycle traffic unit, said Boise works with the Ada County Highway District to identify engineering problems. There’s speeding all over the city but Konvalinka said he’s observed people at speeds over 100 mph on the connector.
“We actually have to sit and observe the traffic violations here in Idaho,” he said. “In Idaho, we don’t have speed cameras or stop light cameras.”
But for now, if you’re on Chinden or driving through Garden City, make sure to follow this advice:
“Our No. 1 safety tip is slow down and pay close attention to the vehicles around you,” Allen said.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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