Bike Cops Are Out This Morning

[thatmofo]

Powers just north of Barnes - They are gunning southbound traffic

Woodmen and Austin Bluffs - He's gunning people coming eastbound down the hill on Woodmen for sure.

[Tipys]

There always doing stuff like this. Its easy in town dont speed.

[PharmerKyle]

They're blatantly shooting motorists in town today?

I'm on a failing EX500 running on 1 cylinder. I'll have no chance at getting away.

Thanks for the warning!

[kosh]

Theres alot of speed traps in the mornings, its a good time for them. lets face it people are late for work and speed.

[Brat]

yep those whores are out pissing away tax dollars in the name of generating revenue and "justice", "serving and"..... well serving paperwork.....

[Mental]

Nice heads up, thanks!

[af_blues]

glad i have a short cumute in this town

[thatmofo]

They were out again in force today. I couldn't get out of the double digits without see one. Sucks for one rider that I see almost daily. I just hope that he didn't get caught in the construction zone.

[JohnEffinK]

They have been out fo sho.

Lately seeing the pair on Platte between Whasatch and Union mostly.

Of course I am running Manitou to Schriever. Have to deal with the States on 94 when it begs to double yellow pass.....

Best of luck to all out there.

John

[06sv1000s]

There always doing stuff like this. Its easy in town dont speed.

That's your best advice. I ride from the AF Academy to Citadel Mall and there is always atleast one. Just don't speed!

[dm_gsxr]

Apparently they're out this morning as well. 9News is reporting a Bike Cop down at Federal south of 6th. I hope he's ok.

Carl

[Mental]

That sucks, those guys are usually in short sleeves too.

[Brat]

they could be doing somthing more police like, like say stopping crime.. i beleive we have a missing r1. all i ever see em doing is pissing away gas...

[thatmofo]

Avoid Powers between Platte and Stetson Hills. There are multiple cops posted out as if someone robbed a donut shop.

[d3spair]

They can pay for 100000000000000000000000 motorcycle cops, but can't fucking repave mother fucking Academy. I've seen better groomed dirt trails than that fucking disaster. That crack filling lasted what, ONE snow shower? /rant

[Tipys]

^^^ Plus one. Also they spend alot on tires for the bike cops too.

[asp_125]

The weather's nice now and they're harder to spot than a cruiser.

Interesting experience today. I had one ride "formation" with me all the way from south Boulder to Longmont on the evening commute. If you're not being a idiot and just blend in with traffic you're ok. This one must've been coming off shift, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans on his Harley cop bike. We paced each other, playing cat and mouse a few miles, gave each other the nod at the light and continued to ride. Boy I tell you, mc cops must have to have valium or a lot of patience; drivers would keep mirror checking and hang up the phone and hitting the brakes and slowing down slower than the posted limit as soon as we came up on them. I'd be passing them left and right.

[YZFRydn]

They're out on I25 in the Thornton area as well.

Agreed on the patience. Imagine having to drive slower than the speed limit all day once you were behind someone.

[The Black Knight]

They can pay for 100000000000000000000000 motorcycle cops, but can't fucking repave mother fucking Academy. I've seen better groomed dirt trails than that fucking disaster. That crack filling lasted what, ONE snow shower? /rant

That's what happens when you've got a City Council that only worries about the facade of "Public Safety". Dude I work for the city and my department has already been cut 33% of our total budget. You know what the weaksauce Fire and Police Departments have given up due to budget cuts?? A whopping 1% of their overall budget.

You know what's better than that? Between Fire and Police they take now 56% of the City's General Fund. That's not including the revenue they generate via traffic violations and tickets.

I hate to say it man, but get used to having a dump for a City because our worthless City Council worries only about getting "Votes" and "Public Safety" as they call it.

To even add icing on the cake. Come June we are facing another $5 to $8 Million dollar shortfall and may be having to do more cuts and position losses. So the stuff that isn't getting taken care of now, sure won't get be getting taken care of after that with less people.

And it's not that the departments aren't trying to take care of things. We just don't have the money in our budgets set aside for upgrades and upkeep. Park and Rec alone(33% budget loss) doesn't have the money for the basics anymore. We've seen districts operation budgets go from close to $100K down to just $25K, so tell me how each district can afford to pay for their irrigation parts and supplies, grass seed, fertilizer and fertigation systems??

One Fertilizer application alone(all of Park and Rec, about 180 parks) cost close to $27K!!!, guess what our water bill is for one nights of watering(of all parks)?? about $30K. Our seasonal water budget is close to 2 Million and we've got about $500k to water with this year. So get ready for all your parks to be burnt to hell and some even going dormant in Summer months.

Why?? because our beloved Police and Fire cannot be touched. God forbid they give up more then a 1% cut in budget. You know, I might have cut the Guns and Hoses some slack if they would have come up with 10% to be cut in their budgets. Hell no, they kicked and screamed about 1%

So your roads will be potholed and unpaved. Your parks will be stressed and in bad shape. Your drainage projects will get slowed to some extent. But know, that your "Public Safety" is our BS city councils #1 concern. So if anyone has a complaint. Find your City Council representative and let them know. HAHA doubt they'll listen.

[d3spair]

Good post, it's very sad in my opinion. Colorado Springs in the past was much better than it is now.

[PhL0aTeR]

Colorado Springs in the past was much better than it is now.

you got it right there.

[The Black Knight]

Good post, it's very sad in my opinion. Colorado Springs in the past was much better than it is now.

That's the thing, we've always been a beautiful city. And now they want us to do everything, with nothing(i.e. resources for maintenance). This whole budget problem with the Springs has really ticked me off. I focus most of my irritability towards City Council and the rest at Fire and Police.

If El Paso county Sheriff Terry Maketa can lay off his deputies and cut his budget big time. Why can't CSPD?? or CSFD?? Maketa actually has more to take care of in acreage or overall mileage is concerned. Granted Colorado Springs metro is bigger with a higher crime. But the Sheriffs still have to cover more ground.

I remember last year when it all went down for the County and their budget problems. And I commend Maketa for doing what he had to do. He flat out came on TV and said, "look folks, I've got to make budget cuts and that means officers and so forth. So we might not be able to respond as quickly as we have before."

I really respect Maketa for doing that. He also made it mandatory for his sheriffs to park in specific areas within the county(basically in the areas they are assigned). No more of this driving around aimlessly, he told his officers to sit and wait for calls. Since they weren't all driving around or sitting around and chatting for hours(cough: CSPD), they were actually in their areas and could still respond as quick as they could. All the while, cutting back on fuel usage(which is a big dent in budgets in both county and City) and wear and tear on sheriff vehicles.

Even Denver Police volunteered 2.5%(If I remember right) in budget cuts and salary freeze for the year. That at least shows initiative. But hell no, not CSPD or CSFD. Those two freaked about the budget cuts and both the Police and Fire chiefs fought tooth and nail against all cuts.

Which is now bad for the entire City in general. All departments now despise and look down on CSPD and CSFD. The rest of the General City departments have had to make our own budget cuts(big time) in order to pick up the slack from CSPD and CSFD.

We even had a member of SWAT come in during one of our safety meetings and give a class. Not many in my department gave the guy the time of day. Pretty much sat there, let him run his BS and paid little attention. Which is bad, because we have such a rift now within the City. But that's what you get when we have such an elitist attitude from the two most prominent Departments.

But to get back on topic real quick. The main problem with the City going down is our reliance on Sales Tax. If City Council would have grown a set and put and initiative on the April ballots to switch back to Property Tax as our main source of revenue. Then we could have let the voters decide.

Property Tax is always a constant and you don't have to worry about the fluctuation in the Sales Tax revenue. Plus what really hits Colorado Springs hard is TABOR. Not just the State TABOR but the Springs is the only city with the Amendments 3 and 4 of TABOR. So we are screwed twice when it comes to revenue.

I'm all for limited government and taxes. But TABOR is a disaster. I know alot of folks think it's the best thing since sliced bread. But Doug Bruce is a moron and he's screwed this once beautiful city with his TABOR. TABOR doesn't affect the City when times are good and Sales Tax is up. But during a downturn in the Economy(like we've seen and have been seeing, especially with Sales Tax) with TABOR in affect. Once the economy takes a dive, so does the City's revenue. We have to follow the rate of decline, which would be normal. But here's the catch, because economies are like roller coasters and go up and down. When the economy swings back upwards because of TABOR, CS can't follow the upswing. Colorado Springs follows the downswing but if the economy rebounds sharply TABOR requires that we only grow at a certain rate.

So while the economy is doing well, the City can't follow as fast and can only gradually rise with an upswing. Which is why for the past few years now, the idea has been being kicked around in the City to switch back to Property Tax. It's constant and we wouldn't be affected by TABOR. In fact Sales Tax would actually go down(7.4% now, it would fall back) because we wouldn't be relying on Sales Tax to run the city. And the crazy thing is, people wouldn't see their Property Taxes go up either.

In essence the City would just use more from the Property Taxes collected to go back into the General Fund. As it is right now, on a home that pays roughly $1000 in property taxes. The General City fund only gets about $78 of that. Which in turn that $78 gets split between all the organizations within the City. Doesn't go very far. So with a switch back, we could tap into more of the Property Taxes collected.

There's also talk of making some of the departments "Enterprises" like CS Utilities is. For instance if Park and Rec went Enterprise, we could then charge more fees for facilities, ameneties and parks in general. To give you an idea of how cheap it is to rent a park. A group of people can rent out Memorial Park for $100 roughly. That means that entire 130 acres are yours for a specific amount of time during the day you rent it.

If things were an Enterprise for Parks and Rec. Memorial would change to about $1000 to rent. Still very cheap for 130 total acres and 90 turf acres. Hell if you had a party with 100 people, everyone could just throw $10 in and you'd have your Fee. The other nice thing, is if Parks and Rec went Enterprise, you'd see more of your taxes go down, since we wouldn't be funded by taxes. Instead you'd get a monthly bill(kind of like Utilities, only for something like $15). Since everyone would have to pay parks in their neighborhood vicinity.

I know folks would be pissed to begin with. Because lots of people don't use parks and feel that they shouldn't have to pay a monthly bill. Well you you pay for it via taxes. And in fact would pay less if you were just billed monthly or paid for parks via Rent Fees.

It's a freaking long and drawn out process. We've had meeting after meeting on it. The inner workings of the City are too much to explain on here. Even for some of my epic posts. HAHA

[charlesard1]

Bike cops scare me-Look like Nazi Gustapo. Still, dumbx#o riders scare me more! The things I have seen some of us do on public streets thinking they are private playgrounds ought to be illegal. Wait it is, oh now I know why we have traffic cops.

[Brat]

ive seen traffic bike cops almost start a huge accident to get a red turn light runner... free shows of that at austin bluffs and acad on nice days. they do it on powers too.. idiots. im waiting for one to get hit so i can go hmmm do you have your msf done? there needs to be a level of responsibility for them when riding those damn things around town.
the one thing everyone agrees on, its easy to do... just dont speed... i like the look they give me as i put by at usually 5 under. as loud as i can.