Web Site Tracks Speed Traps Law Officers Don’t Mind That Site Gives Away Their Favorite Hideouts Since It Helps Slow Drivers Down

Watch out for the “Bear in the Air” east of Sullivan Road. Be careful when you cross the bridge at Bonners Ferry; city cops wait on the north side. Tempted to speed up between Uniontown and Colton? Don’t even think about it.

That’s the kind of advice you’ll find posted at www.speedtrap.com.

Put together by an enterprising college student and sponsored by a radar-detector company, the Internet site allows drivers to snitch, sneer and sob. It is the computerized version of the truckers’ CB radio alert.

If you think all traffic cops hate this, you are absolutely wrong.

“I’m delighted they’ve got our unit in there,” said police Sgt. Jim Greensides of Coeur d’Alene. He heads the city’s accident-prevention squad, and chuckled knowingly when he heard the listing of officers’ favorite patrol spots.

Speedtrap.com is the brainchild of Andrew Warner, who says most feedback he gets from police is positive. Especially when it comes from larger agencies.

“They view it as a tool to really slowing down people,” Warner said. “Most of the criticism I hear is from smaller departments that really rely on the revenue from tickets.”

Town officials tend to downplay that source of revenue. Colfax - known among Washington State University students as a place to watch out for police - netted $21,142 from traffic citations in 1997.

“That’s less than two tickets a day,” said city treasurer Boyd Leonard. “That’s not very much.”

While police officers may be pleased or neutral about Warner’s Internet enterprise, officers get annoyed by the term “speed trap.”

“It gives the impression of what people see on TV, the officer hiding behind billboards, lurking, trying to get someone going a few miles over the speed limit,” said Bonners Ferry Police Chief David Kramer.

Kramer said he tells his officers to be visible. He wants to deter speeders from barreling off the town’s North Hill, not just nab them.

Sgt. Chris Powell of the Washington State Patrol doesn’t like the term speed trap, either. But he defends the fact that patrol cars wait at underpasses.

“It doesn’t do much good to park in the middle of I-90 where people can see you a mile away,” he said.

Speedtrap.com didn’t arise from any particular ticket or sense of outrage, although Warner admits to speeding.

He’s a computer science major at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and his initial goal three years ago was developing a Web site for a class assignment. “I ended up having to bag it for that,” he said in a telephone interview.

As a senior he’s finding more time to devote to the page. His sponsor is Valentine One, whose owner Mike Valentine developed the original Fuzzbuster radar device.

The site, he said, gets a few hundred thousand visitors each month. About 600 speed trap comments come in during that time, and he uses as many as half of them.

Drivers’ comments are indexed by state. Warner edits them.

“I screen for (off-color) language, and sometimes fix grammar and language that defies understanding,” he said.

He deletes anything that sounds too far-fetched or is rude to an officer. He won’t list sobriety checkpoints. “I’m not going to make it easier for drunk drivers,” he tells Web site visitors.

Traffic reports are anonymous. Warner asks contributors for e-mail addresses, but doesn’t publish them.

“I get a lot (of input) from commuters,” he said, “and a disproportionate number from truckers.”

College students are regular contributors. One frequently mentioned area is around Pullman, home of WSU.

That includes State Highway 26, where one driver reported: “I was nailed by radar for 72 in a 55 … We flew up to visit a friend, and in two days, we racked up two tickets.”

Those sad words were followed by the electronic mail shorthand for a frown, :-(

“Highway 26 is one of our problem spots,” confirmed Sgt. Don Anderson of the Whitman County Sheriff’s Department. “There’s the weekly migration from WSU to Seattle.”

The driver mentioned being caught by a sheriff’s deputy in a light-blue vehicle, but Anderson said those haven’t been used in three years. It could have been a Washington State Patrol car, he said.

Readers of speedtrap.com shouldn’t assume all the information is accurate.

One person reported patrols of up to 20 troopers on U.S. 395 between Spokane and Colville, and said they got help from a blue-and-white helicopter.

“We don’t have helicopters. Where they come up with stuff like that is beyond me,” said WSP’s Sgt. Powell. “And to say there’s 20 troopers up there is a bit of a stretch.”

Because it’s out of date, the report on U.S. 395 may actually understate the chance of getting caught. A multiagency patrol effort now reaches into Spokane, far beyond the rural mileposts listed.

Officers cautioned that just slowing down won’t keep speedtrap.com fans out of trouble. Improper passing, seat belt use and tailgating are targeted, too.

Spokane Police Cpl. Tom Sahlberg warned of the limits of radar detectors, which many speedtrap.com readers obviously use.

“A couple of detectors claim to beat even the laser radar, and that’s just not true,” he said. “It’s a false sense of security.”

Sahlberg is uneasy, if resigned, to reports that paint police as bad guys.

“It’s a matter of free speech,” he said. “Warning people that cops are around the corner is just part of being in this country.”

Speedtrap.com will keep zooming along, even after Warner graduates. He’s making money off corporate advertisers, and figures it will make a lucrative sideline to whatever “day job” he takes.

Who knows? He could end up in the Northwest. He’s interviewed a few times with Microsoft in Seattle.

“I’m amazed by the drivers there,” he said. “Coming from the South, where everyone drives minivans and they’re weaving in and out - people up there seem more sedate.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: HOT SPOTS A driver with a heavy foot and access to the Internet can get the lowdown on traffic patrols at www.speedtrap.com Here are some sample submissions, which are anonymous and not necessarily up to date: Colfax: The last bend as you leave Colfax on Highway 195 toward Pullman is a favorite for the Colfax Police to nail people both leaving and entering town. The speed limit changes from 55 to 35 and then down to 25, and they will ticket anyone driving 3 mph over the limit. They use radar. Four to eight miles south of Coeur d’Alene: Regular Idaho State Police speed traps using radar. They are always sitting on east side of the highway (U.S. 95) at one of several small access roads. Eastern Washington: The frequency for the air/ground trooper communication for the “eye in the sky” is 159.075. It’s used extensively in Eastern Washington twice a day somewhere from Ellensburg through the Tri-Cities, plus more often than not, a second plane between Moses Lake and Spokane. Coeur d’Alene: The classic speed trap - 4th Street by the high school - radar is used - the cops have a field day as this is the only area on 4th Street where the speed limit drops from 35 to 25 (for one block). Moscow: DON’T drive the Perimeter Drive at night. Or if you do, make sure you travel at speeds well under the posted 35 mph. There is a police car sitting right by the turnoff to the Old Pullman Highway who always has his radar on. Never mind that the speed limit is ridiculously low; one mile over, and he’ll nail you for 10.