Protesters warn drivers in Elmwood Place about speed trap

CINCINNATI - Dozens of protesters lined Towne Street in Elmwood Place with signs warning drivers about a speed trap Saturday.

“I got two tickets, one going and one coming in a matter of 13 minutes,” said Priscilla Baldwin who is on a fixed income. She received four tickets from an automated traffic camera, generating tickets to anyone who exceeds the 25 mph speed limit.

“It’s horrible, I’m not able to pay that,” Baldwin said with her four tickets in hand.

Baldwin is going to have to pay a private company, Optotraffic, a total cost of $420. That’s why she joined dozens of others to protest the traffic cameras placed on Towne Street as well as Vine Street in Elmwood Place. Each ticket is a flat rate of $105.

Lincoln Ware organized the protest because he says people are just fed up.

“All week long people have been calling, complaining about tickets they’ve been receiving in the mail. They didn’t realize they were speeding, some two or three miles over the speed limit,” Ware said.

Regardless of the warnings given on Towne Street Saturday afternoon, protestors said its likely most of these drivers will still get trapped by the cameras and receive a ticket in the mail within the next two weeks.

“You coming out of Cincinnati doing 35 boom your at 25 and there’s the cameras right there. It’s a speed trap,” said Ware. “Its not about safety here in Elmwood place, it’s a money grab. They even admitted they are in financial trouble here so this is just a way to milk the people who come through Elmwood,” he said.

The tickets are considered a civil offense, not a moving violation, and don't count against a driver's license or insurance.