ARCADE, Ga. – Ten police officers used to roam the busy stretch of highway that slices through this tiny northwest Georgia town, writing traffic tickets that helped pay for a spacious city complex but also infuriated local businesses and repulsed drivers.
Arcade’s residents hoped they had put the reputation behind them after the Georgia State Patrol cleared the city of speed trap allegations and a new police chief downsized the department. But the issue re-emerged, this time in the form of a federal lawsuit filed by a frustrated driver.
“Someone had to finally take a stand for all those who have been targeted by the city of Arcade police,” said Joe Moses, a retired dentist who filed the complaint in December. It contends officers used “overzealous and improper tactics in creating a speed trap” along U.S. Highway 129.
Residents have grown used to the allegations. The National Speed Trap Exchange warns drivers to take caution when rolling through the city of 1,900 about 13 miles northwest of Athens. And the Georgia State Patrol investigated the city three times between 1997 and 2005, each time concluding the police department was not running a speed trap.
“It’s made people scared to death to go through Arcade,” said Darlene Craven, the owner of Darlene’s Family Hair Care and Tanning Salon, which sits along Arcade’s main road.