Archived page, if you’re paywalled or region-blocked
… Coffee City, a town in East Texas with a population of 250, had 50 officers heavily patrolling city streets and issuing millions of dollars in traffic tickets, according to a KHOU 11 investigative report.
“There’s not much to Coffee City, Texas,” KHOU 11 reporter Jeremy Rogalski wrote last month. “Two liquor stores, a couple of dollar stores, a pizza joint, and a motel. But this town, which is three hours north of Houston, has quite a reputation among those who drive through.” …
This article could probably use some context as it is pretty misleading currently.
Coffee City is about 25 miles from Tyler, a city of about 100,000 people. You can’t buy liquor in Tyler stores, only beer and wine. Until relatively recently, there wasn’t even liquor sold in bars in Tyler. For the last 40 to 50 years, Coffee City has been the main place to go for liquor. Coffee City is basically two liquor stores on the far end of a mile long bridge. The article mentions a couple other stores in town, but I didn’t notice them last time I was there.
I am not a fan of the excessive Police State that the US has become. Furthermore, it is very clear that there is some kind of corruption is going on in the Coffee City police force itself where they are hiring problem cops.
That said, these cops aren’t there to police Coffee City residents. They are there to catch the constant stream of drunk drivers coming in from Tyler. I don’t have the numbers but I wouldn’t be surprised if 95% of their income is from DWIs given to people crossing the bridge.
In this particular case, discharging all those officers is probably a significant public danger. People are probably going to end up dying over this if the county or state don’t send officers to cover the bridge area.
So the safe thing to do would be to legalize the sale of liquor in Tyler.
clutches pearls
Probably, unless people thought they could make it five miles but not twenty-five, and decided to go for it. Not that anyone that drunk ever had good enough judgment to not drive the twenty-five.
How on earth do you need 50 cops to patrol one bridge? I am guessing hiring cops with questionable backgrounds is also necessary to stop the DWIs. It might have started with DWIs but it clearly got corrupted a while ago.
That’s a good point. Assuming 3 shifts a day each for weekdays and weekends, there would need to be 6 cops on duty all the time to utilize that roster. Maybe 4 in cars and 2 watching the drunk tank?
Thanks for the context, sincerely. I had pictured only a speed trap, not a drunk-driving trap. I am confident, however, that if there are tickets to be written, county and/or state cops will be there.
Sure thing. Not like there aren’t plenty of small towns in Texas that have a history of speed traps.
I might even be underestimating the amount of speeding tickets that get written in the area, but I was more than a little surprised not to see Tyler or DWIs mentioned.
I have some family in the area. I will have to try and remember to ask them if they have heard anything about it next time I talk to them.
That is very interesting context. But sounds like the solution is to get rid of the stupid alcohol prohibition in Tyler and move the cops there. There will still be drink drivers but they won’t be driving as far so theoretically less dangerous.
You are preaching to the choir here. I am for the old tax, tag, and regulate. Not just alcohol, but virtually any drug excluding antibiotics. Its still a growing city though so most people must not mind that badly.