(CBS4) MOUNTAIN VIEW, Colo. Police in the tiny town of Mountain View have permanently stopped issuing traffic tickets to drivers on northbound Sheridan Boulevard after learning they may possibly be invalid due to the town’s city limits.
Sheridan is the eastern boundary of Mountain View, a town of 569 residents in just 12 square blocks, and tucked between Wheat Ridge and Denver.
A CBS4 investigation found that Mountain View's 12-person police force has routinely been issuing speeding tickets and other moving violations to drivers northbound on Sheridan.
However, maps from Denver's clerk and recorder, confirmed by the city of Denver's senior land surveyor, show northbound lanes of Sheridan fall within the city and county of Denver, while southbound lanes are within Mountain View's jurisdiction.
“If we've done something we weren't supposed to, let's make it right,” Mountain View Police Chief Eric Gomez told CBS4.
The chief said he and his officers mistakenly thought they had ticketing authority “curb to curb” on Sheridan but were wrong. Gomez said one police agency is “definitely not” allowed to issue citations within another agency’s boundaries.
“There was no intention on the officers’ part to take the law into their own hands and just start issuing tickets,” Gomez said. “If there's a training issue for them, its a training issue for me.”
Gomez said he too had issued moving violations to drivers in Sheridan's northbound lanes.
Even though Mountain View is small, its police department is aggressive in traffic enforcement. In the last 2 1/2 years, they've issued approximately 7,200 tickets, according to assistant town attorney Hilary Mogue Graham.
In 2006, they've been handing out an average of 475 tickets per month, mostly on Sheridan Boulevard.
“We hit Sheridan hard, very hard,” Gomez said.
Mountain View police have been unable to say just how many tickets they have inadvertently handed out in Denver over the years, but they contend most of their ticketing has been in southbound lanes which are the Mountain View side of Sheridan.
The jurisdictional issue came to light after a Mountain View officer ticketed motorcycle rider Shiloh Frazier, 29, on September 2 for speeding.
Frazier was northbound on Sheridan at 43rd Avenue when he was ticketed and charged the with unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon. A Jefferson County judge eventually dismissed both charges in April because he thought Mountain View police lacked jurisdiction to ticket on the east side of Sheridan.
“Its a scam,” said David Lane, Frazier’s attorney. “Where their cops are stopping people outside Mountain View, knowing that 99 percent are going to write a check and mail it in and that’s all unlawfully gained revenue. This boundary is not difficult to ascertain. All you need is a map.”
Lane said drivers who got, and paid, questionable moving violations from Mountain View police, and received points against their licenses, may not have much individual recourse since their cases have been adjudicated. However, Lane intends to file a class action lawsuit against the department within the next few weeks for what he called fraudulent tickets.
Lane said the basis for the lawsuit will be that the officers had no constitutional right to ticket people outside their jurisdiction.
“They've been misled by a government entity into paying a lot of money and we may be able to recoup some of this money for those people,” Lane said.
Chief Gomez said all the ticket writing has not been an effort to boost revenues for the small town.
“The revenue is not such a big deal or we would write more tickets,” Gomez said.
On Thursday, just days after CBS4 showed Gomez maps and other evidence that the town boundary was the middle of Sheridan Boulevard, the chief wrote a memo to his officers to put a stop to the faulty ticketing.
Sheridan is the eastern boundary of Mountain View, a town of 569 residents in just 12 square blocks, and tucked between Wheat Ridge and Denver.
A CBS4 investigation found that Mountain View's 12-person police force has routinely been issuing speeding tickets and other moving violations to drivers northbound on Sheridan.
However, maps from Denver's clerk and recorder, confirmed by the city of Denver's senior land surveyor, show northbound lanes of Sheridan fall within the city and county of Denver, while southbound lanes are within Mountain View's jurisdiction.
“If we've done something we weren't supposed to, let's make it right,” Mountain View Police Chief Eric Gomez told CBS4.
The chief said he and his officers mistakenly thought they had ticketing authority “curb to curb” on Sheridan but were wrong. Gomez said one police agency is “definitely not” allowed to issue citations within another agency’s boundaries.
“There was no intention on the officers’ part to take the law into their own hands and just start issuing tickets,” Gomez said. “If there's a training issue for them, its a training issue for me.”
Gomez said he too had issued moving violations to drivers in Sheridan's northbound lanes.
Even though Mountain View is small, its police department is aggressive in traffic enforcement. In the last 2 1/2 years, they've issued approximately 7,200 tickets, according to assistant town attorney Hilary Mogue Graham.
In 2006, they've been handing out an average of 475 tickets per month, mostly on Sheridan Boulevard.
“We hit Sheridan hard, very hard,” Gomez said.
Mountain View police have been unable to say just how many tickets they have inadvertently handed out in Denver over the years, but they contend most of their ticketing has been in southbound lanes which are the Mountain View side of Sheridan.
The jurisdictional issue came to light after a Mountain View officer ticketed motorcycle rider Shiloh Frazier, 29, on September 2 for speeding.
Frazier was northbound on Sheridan at 43rd Avenue when he was ticketed and charged the with unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon. A Jefferson County judge eventually dismissed both charges in April because he thought Mountain View police lacked jurisdiction to ticket on the east side of Sheridan.
“Its a scam,” said David Lane, Frazier’s attorney. “Where their cops are stopping people outside Mountain View, knowing that 99 percent are going to write a check and mail it in and that’s all unlawfully gained revenue. This boundary is not difficult to ascertain. All you need is a map.”
Lane said drivers who got, and paid, questionable moving violations from Mountain View police, and received points against their licenses, may not have much individual recourse since their cases have been adjudicated. However, Lane intends to file a class action lawsuit against the department within the next few weeks for what he called fraudulent tickets.
Lane said the basis for the lawsuit will be that the officers had no constitutional right to ticket people outside their jurisdiction.
“They've been misled by a government entity into paying a lot of money and we may be able to recoup some of this money for those people,” Lane said.
Chief Gomez said all the ticket writing has not been an effort to boost revenues for the small town.
“The revenue is not such a big deal or we would write more tickets,” Gomez said.
On Thursday, just days after CBS4 showed Gomez maps and other evidence that the town boundary was the middle of Sheridan Boulevard, the chief wrote a memo to his officers to put a stop to the faulty ticketing.
