Скачать или смотреть Columbus City Council president accuses the village of Brice of operating a speed trap

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Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin is calling out the village of Brice, accusing the small village — with a population of 93 — of operating a speed trap.

Hardin received a speeding ticket on Brice Road in December, driving 30 mph in a 20 mph school zone, he said.

“It was never about me. I paid my ticket right away. That was not the concern. It was that over the last year, over 9,000 folks have received tickets,” Hardin said.

Hardin took to Facebook to express his concern, writing, “Our Municipal Court is drowning in tickets that Brice can't process or enforce. We didn't ask for this — they dumped it on us.”

Brice Police Chief Delano Bauchmoyer said he approved 9,317 speeding tickets in the 2024-2025 school year. He or one of his other officers would sit in a school parking lot on Brice Road during the school year, as a traffic camera nabbed drivers going 8 mph or more over the 20 mph limit in the school zone. Drivers would later receive a ticket in the mail.

Bauchmoyer insists this is not a speed trap.

“My children are just as important as everyone else’s children. Their safety — that is why the cameras are in the school zone. We are trying to slow the traffic down and protect the children,” he said.

In Oct. 2024, Bauchmoyer defended the speed cameras to 10TV's Kevin Landers. In 2021, a state auditor accused Brice of running a speed trap.

RELATED: Village of Brice back to using speed cameras

"Speed trap implies that you are lying in wait you're hiding or you are mechanically changing the speed limit, none of which is happening. Everybody is wrapped up in their own life. They're late for work, late for the babysitter or they just don't care because they always speed," Bauchmoyer said.

A state audit found the village failed to keep proper records of citations and didn’t pay the Franklin County Municipal Court filing fees for tickets. According to the court, 4,680 citations have been filed with the clerk's office this year.

Brice is currently the only municipality or village in Franklin County to file these civil photo speed citations, the court says.

Now, Bauchmoyer says he is issuing these tickets legally.

“Slow down, pay attention to the speed limit if you don’t want to pay the court costs and the fines. Either slow down or drive around my town because if you drive through my town and you are speeding, you are probably going to get caught,” Bauchmoyer said.

A ticket for driving between 10 mph and 19 mph over the speed limit will cost $125, plus $116 in court costs.

The Franklin County Municipal Court returned $432,282.50 to the village during the last school year. After paying 40% of the funds back to the camera company, the village pocketed around $259,369.50.

“I think when a village the size of Brice has the majority of revenue coming from this type of enforcement, I think we should all take a look and say, 'Is this really fair?'” Hardin said.

Hardin added the court has had to hire an additional four staff members to take on the administrative work from the Brice tickets.