Too Many Traffic Tickets in North Bend

Published 2:37 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

The North Bend Chamber of Commerce asserted

last week that North Bend police were writing too many

traffic tickets.

Chamber president Don Shultz asked for a

meeting between Town Council members and concerned

groups to “explore ways to restore to North Bend, a climate

of mutual trust and respect between the citizens and

their police department.”

In a letter to the Council, read at the June 1

meeting, Shultz said there was a “growing resentment of

the townspeople toward what appears to them a sudden

zeal for writing traffic tickets.”

“To most of us, the town policeman has always

been a friend, a man we knew and trusted, guarding our

children, our homes and businesses. We like it that

way,” the letter said.

“. . . Suddenly we have five policemen who are

comparatively new in the community. They don’t know

us, we don’t know them and when we do meet, it isn’t

always under the happiest conditions – getting a ticket

for a minor traffic violation that for years has been

passed over because of a lack of adequate enforcement

facilities.”

Schultz said the Chamber of Commerce had “no

complaint against strict law enforcement,” and were not

asking for a “tolerance policy.” He suggested, however,

that police shouldn’t concentrate on writing traffic tickets

“to the possible neglect of other needed areas of protection.”

He said that increasing traffic and the delay in a

freeway bypass “contributes to the friction,” and that the

town and the Chamber should “set about solving our

mutual problems in ways that will lessen rather than

increase the irritation among us.”