Watch out for the Speed Trap in Cedar Rapids!

BY ED FELIEN

On the last warm weekend in September my wife and I traveled down to Davenport, Iowa, to visit family and watch the St. Ambrose Bees lose their homecoming football game to the Valley View Vikings. It was a lovely visit, but it was ruined when we got a letter in the mail a week later from the City of Cedar Rapids telling us we had violated its speeding ordinance by driving 67 and 68 in a 55 mph zone (they got us coming and going). We were liable for a civil fine of $150. It was not considered a criminal offense and “payment of the civil fines shall constitute the final disposition of this matter.”

The shortest distance from South Minneapolis to Davenport, Iowa, was down 35 to US 18 and IA 27, then to US 218 around Waterloo. This merges with US 380 through Cedar Rapids and connects to US 80 and turn east to Davenport. The Google map gives no indication that US 380 somehow disappears in Cedar Rapids, however an Iowa map shows a curious vacuum of interstate connections. It seems 380 connects but it is not really a part of the interstate system. Cedar Rapids has effectively seceded from the system.

Traffic through Cedar Rapids is regulated by the city and the speed limit is 55 mph rather than the customary 65 or 70 common to the interstate system. There was little indication that we were leaving the interstate system and entering the Twilight Zone of video surveillance cameras and automated enforcement. There were no signs that said we were being photographed, and the speed seems artificially lowered in this small patch

Hidden and secret video surveillance seems rude and sneaky, but the prosecution of my wife as the owner of the car while I was in fact driving it seems a violation of her constitutional rights. If she did not pay the fine she would have been subject to “formal collection procedures including, but not limited to, being reported to a credit reporting agency, and a civil lawsuit.” She would have been deprived of property and the value of her credit rating without due process. As the owner of the car she was liable, even though she wasn’t driving. Her only hope to avoid prosecution would have been for her to testify against me, violating the commonly agreed right of a spouse to not have to testify against their partner, which constitutional scholars say is a constitutional right, and refuse to answer on the grounds of self-incrimination.

The revenue from operating a speed trap on Interstate 380 must be a temptation beyond redemption for city officials worried about tight budgets and tax increases. As Rick Smith, Cedar Rapids’ television reporter for station KCRG, reported earlier this year: “Revenue from the city’s much-discussed traffic enforcement cameras will offset the additional $1.2 million the city must pay into the state pension system for police officers.”