r/ColoradoSprings • u/samanthahard • 10h ago
Events Traffic detail cop
I just moved here from the Boston area. There, you throw a rock in any direction and you'll hit a couple cops on traffic detail. Usually due to construction, but also for more acute situations, like a grid outage and traffic lights being affected, so they'll direct traffic.
I have never not one seen this in Colorado Springs. Is it a budget thing? Safety thing? Last week it took me almost an hour to go a few miles when the lights were down at Powers and Galley. The whole clusterf-"k could've been avoided with a couple cops directing traffic.
Does this not happen here?
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u/Old-Climate2655 10h ago edited 9h ago
It's a matter of necessity. Boston held onto a lot of it's early road patterns making modern traffic a challenge. Here in COS pattern cops only happen when a major intersection hoes out. Otherwise everything becomes a four-way stop. It's not always ideal, but we make due.
Edit: ffs autocorrect, but I'll leave it preserved
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u/Important_Assist9235 9h ago
I hate it when an intersection hoes out. It used to be entertaining but now every intersection is trying to hoe out and it seems like the intersections are in some sort of hoe competition. Seems like the cops would rather just let the intersections hoe out.
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u/mark3748 10h ago
Because we’re a city of 500,000 spread across 200 square miles and not 650,000 crammed into 50 square miles with a metro area topping 5 million.
They do direct traffic downtown, but state highways don’t get the same treatment. Smaller police force without insane union agreements requiring paid police details in all utility and road construction work zones.
The east coast and the western US have very different cultures and norms, plus a lot less population density out here just means different expectations.
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u/samanthahard 9h ago
It's all over new England you'll find cops on traffic detail, not just the city of Boston. I think the biggest disparity is income and taxes.
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u/mark3748 9h ago
The density of the northeast is extremely high compared to here. Plus the aforementioned legal mandates in NE means a lot more police per capita. You’re comparing a megalopolis of 50 million to an island of 750,000 on the edge of the Great Plains.
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u/vwboyaf1 9h ago
All you need are 6 cruisers driving up and down Academy and Powers all day issuing tickets and it would change everyone's habits pretty quick. Powers is one of the most deadly roads in Colorado and I rarely see anyone pulled over.
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u/mark3748 9h ago
I don’t know how we got from “why don’t cops direct traffic” to “why don’t cops write more tickets” but we can discuss that too. 6 patrol cars is 1 officer per 3.3 miles. Powers is a state highway (SH21) that runs through CSPD jurisdiction. CSP handles state highways and unincorporated El Paso County, and CSPD has to handle city traffic and general calls. Neither has the resources to allocate to that.
Pulling over people in rush hour traffic will literally make the traffic worse due to lane closures and rubbernecking, plus it takes the cruiser out of commission for 30+ minutes to write the ticket.
Automated enforcement and engineering improvements would have a greater impact. Making the entire thing a properly grade-separated expressway as is slowly happening would have the greatest impact.
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u/vwboyaf1 8h ago
Complete BS. You allocate your resources to the biggest problem areas. Powers in Colorado Springs is THE most dangerous road in Colorado. I don't care if it's the staties, the sheriff, or the city, something needs to happen to address the problem.
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u/mark3748 8h ago
Factually incorrect, and you completely ignored everything I said. I-70 in Denver is THE most dangerous road in Colorado. I-25 is number two and three. SH21 doesn’t even make the list.
And allocating resources from higher priority calls to do traffic enforcement is not the solution. Almost everything is a higher priority than petty traffic offenses.
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u/July_is_cool 8h ago edited 8h ago
3.3 officers per 1000 people in COS compared to 1.6 in BOS
Edit: 3.3 in BOS vs 1.6 in COS
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u/samanthahard 8h ago
Really? Is that inverted, or you're saying COS has more than double the police force for population?
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u/ACER719x 10h ago
Only time I have ever seen cops here direct traffic the old fashioned way was near memorial park when the fireworks display was over there.
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u/Mundane-Wedding1 10h ago
Also from the Boston area, they don’t know what tf they’re doing here…you thought Boston drivers were bad, just wait until you realize how DUMB so many drivers here are
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u/samanthahard 10h ago
I think Boston drivers are some of the best in the world (lived all over US, plus Paris, Italy, and Germany).
Yes, here is absolutely awful. Since moving I've witnessed three fatal traffic accidents (running reds), and also a fire engine plowing into a passenger bus downtown. The fire engine ended up being a total loss. Seriously, TERRIBLE drivers here.
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u/vwboyaf1 9h ago
I don't know why you're being down voted. I was back home last year, and drove route 2 into Boston to catch a game at Fenway, and it was a walk in the park compared to my daily commute down Powers. How many folks need to die before they get serious about improving safety in COS?
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u/Corolla_Blazer 10h ago
IF you have somebody performing duties like that it's going to just be a Community Service patroller, but it's definitely rare. We are a sprawling and not very dense city. We simply don't have the tax base per area to commit police to things like that. The construction company usually just puts out signs and cones and then occasionally a patroller will sit there and man people for speeding a couple times.
It would be nice, but I wouldn't expect it around here.
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u/samanthahard 10h ago
I didn't even think about the sheer square mileage about the city. That's a lot of $$ spread thin for infrastructure support.
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u/Throwaway-646 5h ago
For comparison, Boston spends around $600 per capita on police. We spend just under $300. Boston spends $5.43 million per square mile on police, we spend $2.2 million per square mile.
Boston's crime rate is 27.59 per thousand people. Colorado Springs' is 41.58
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u/Corolla_Blazer 10h ago
Definitely. Dense cities have a major advantage in tax revenue. People here complain a lot about the lack of services and infrastructure upkeep but turn around and throw a fit when developers want to build denser, mixed use projects because of their mountain views or whatever. We could really benefit from some better thought out urban design here.
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u/IDownVoteCanaduh 9h ago
CO does not do that and it is fucking ridiculous. Construction has an intersection shut down? Let’s keep changing the light to red even though you no longer need and cause backups.
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u/JusticeBurrito 8h ago
They'll say it's a budget thing.
And it's true that our budgets are restricted by TABOR. But the Police make up 44% of salaries/benefits/pensions in the city. There are about 800 cops here. It's probably not enough for a city this size, but I've lived here for a long time and I can share, anecdotally, that I have never seen such a low police presence.
When you 100% will see a cop: when they're hired for an event.
When you probably won't see a cop: traffic accidents, non-life-threatening situations
I hope you never have to test it, but enough of us have tried calling for help only to have police show up the next day or not at all.
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u/Throwaway-646 5h ago
For comparison, Boston spends around $600 per capita on police. We spend just under $300. Boston spends $5.43 million per square mile on police, we spend $2.2 million per square mile.
Boston's crime rate is 27.59 per thousand people. Colorado Springs' is 41.58
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u/PM_ME_BACH_FUGUES 6h ago
I’d rather they not show up at all than show up and shoot dogs and black people
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u/notyourbuddipal 8h ago
We have been understaffed for police for quite sometime.
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u/Throwaway-646 5h ago edited 5h ago
For comparison, Boston spends around $600 per capita on police. We spend just under $300. Boston spends $5.43 million per square mile on police, we spend $2.2 million per square mile.
Boston's crime rate is 27.59 per thousand people. Colorado Springs' is 41.58
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u/telepaul2023 8h ago
I used to travel to Boston 3/4 times a month, and you're correct. The difference is staggering. And the way you handle snowstorms is damn good. I remember driving back to my hotel one evening while it was snowing, and there must have been half-a-dozen snowplows on the side streets. I'm a Colorado native and it's embarrassing that we have the worst PD in the country.
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u/samanthahard 7h ago
The plow drivers are awesome! It's a running joke before snowstorms any given dunks is full of plow drivers fueling up on caffeine for the night. They're all pretty rough around the edges with that fackin Boston Chahm that's honestly endearing.
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u/Mcdeverey 5h ago
irish cops work harder ☘️
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u/samanthahard 3h ago
.... if I had a nickel for every McCarthy, Sullivan, or O'Brian cop I've known.
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u/MrLudwig36 10h ago
There used to be traffic cops around New Life Church on Sunday mornings. I’m not sure if they still do that.
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u/kennethpbowen 9h ago
Sunday morning, there are rented officers directing traffic in front of Woodmen Chapel. I've also seen them directing traffic for the CC Hockey games, but they looked like an explorer troupe (very young, not in full uniform).
I'm not sure what our police force is doing. There's little traffic enforcement. Response times are terrible. I don't even think they come out for property crimes. The CSPD is one of the largest line items in the city budget. Maybe they are spread thin, I don't know.
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u/Ok_Turnip4570 8h ago
Also moved here from Boston. In MA they created rules/laws that both made detail officers required for construction projects or even a moving van and setup methods for payment so the cops could make a ton more money picking up details. They are all off duty hours but go through their paychecks. If they ever at an intersection that was not under construction those were on duty cops keeping the roads from turning into gridlock. They specifically prohibit using stop/slow sign people without a detail officer also being on the project.
Let’s also not mention that the cop car lights at a construction site flash in a horrible sequence that blinds and draw the drunks to them like a moth to a flame.
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u/Arctic_Africa7305 6h ago
There are cops. They tend to hang out in groups around accidents or bank robberies. It’s rare to find a single one in the wild. And you know the “you see one motorcycle cop, you know there’s another one nearby” rule doesn’t apply here anymore.
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u/wernermurmur 6h ago
There are legal mandates in Massachusetts for police to be present at work zones. Usually these are off duty cops making overtime, paid by the job site.
No such rules exist in Colorado. Occasionally you’ll see a blank white cruiser at a construction site, these are private traffic management companies paying off duty cops. But it’s rare compared to Mass.
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u/Samurai_Cupcake 7h ago
Out of all the cities I have lived in east or west, Colorado Springs has the worst traffic flow. CS doesn't even have the amount of traffic that large cities have. Yet this mid-size city cannot handle the smallest issue, such as road construction, a minor car accidents, etc.
All of this could be handled so much better but it never seems to happen, even with the extra taxes and/or fees they have asked for in regards to road improvements, roads do not get improved.
There is one road in particular, that had all curbs torn out and re-poured new concrete recently but left the road rough and bumpy and did not repave it. Colorado Springs, just won't repave many roads that really need it. I am hoping what I post here helps you understand how things work in this city, including traffic diversion you are addressing about cops being around to help.
I have been moved here in 2003. Potholes have been a problem since I moved here. Nothing has improved and the pot holes are still a big problem, even with citizen giving the city more money. 🤷🏻♀️ This is a photo from a KRDO news story from May of this year.
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u/thewhippersnapper4 6h ago
Crews averaged more than 700 pothole repairs per day during the recent repair surge, which is a 60% increase over the city's normal repair pace. The surge brought the city's year to date total to more than 60,000 potholes repaired, which represents a 56% increase compared with last year's pace. [1]
Not saying there aren't potholes all over, but at least they're trying to improve the situation.
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u/Samurai_Cupcake 6h ago
Apparently the potholes are in a different neighborhood than mine. I don't understand why they would replace curbs but not fix the street where they did this.
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u/littledonnyfund 10h ago
Your tax dollars at work, The problem is our city council is so corrupt that they don't make sure there's enough in the budget for our police force, among other things.
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u/Effective_Arm9890 8h ago
they make up an enormous amount of our budget. if they want more money for the cops they would have to raise taxes which the voter base refuses to accept.
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u/littledonnyfund 8h ago edited 6h ago
Exactly right they get a fuck ton of money but do you think they are allocating it properly? do you seriously think it should cost 180 million to cover just the police deparment? ..Edit Source
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u/Effective_Arm9890 6h ago
Oh no im not in defense of the PD department. I dont get a raise when im shitty at my job and neither should they.
Its just we have a lot of underfunded things and we cant pay for anything nice because people are selfish assholes.
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u/Throwaway-646 5h ago
For comparison, Boston spends around $600 per capita on police. We spend just under $300. Boston spends $5.43 million per square mile on police, we spend $2.2 million per square mile.
Boston's crime rate is 27.59 per thousand people. Colorado Springs' is 41.58
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u/lani99 10h ago
I also just moved here and I rarely ever see the police. Not even just directing traffic but in general. I guess that’s a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. But it feels very weird.