Speeding Ticket SW Colorado (legally, office, money)

[pleiaden]

I recently received a speeding ticket in SW Colorado. The thing that struck me as being odd, is that the police offer told me to send the check to the police department instead of the local court.
Is that standard practice or is that weird?

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by pleiaden

the police offer told me to send the check to the police department instead of the local court.

Check the police department for what?

[pleiaden]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

Check the police department for what?

The check, as in instrument of payment.
The Police Officer told me to send the check, the money, to the local police department instead of to court.

[jim9251]

Pick up the phone and call the court, ask for the court clerk.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Aren't payment instructions printed on the ticket?

[pleiaden]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

Aren't payment instructions printed on the ticket?

They are, but the officer crossed them out, wrote down the address to the police department, and told me to send payment to the police department directly.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

In that case, definitely call the court clerk as Jim suggested.

[wrx_girl]

That's really strange, it sounds like something fishy is going on. Definitely call the court, and also check on CO's District Court website in a week or two to see if your ticket shows up there, in VA we can pay our traffic tickets online by going to the VA General Courts Information website.. if it never populates there and the courts don't have any record of it, he could be a crooked cop who ticketed you and is running some sort of scheme wherein victims send their money directly to the police department and bypass the district court system altogether. Seems suspicious to me!

[treedonkey]

I doubt anything 'fishy' is going on at all. If the cop was trying to exploit a couple hundred bucks out of you he would have just fined you (or demanded something else) right there on the spot. I doubt he would be illegally funding his department in that way. Still, it does seem strange and I agree that the suggestion to call the cited court, check the website and so one is a good one, if only for your own peace of mind and ours.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by pleiaden

I recently received a speeding ticket in SW Colorado. The thing that struck me as being odd, is that the police offer told me to send the check to the police department instead of the local court.
Is that standard practice or is that weird?

Not unusual. Several years ago I had a ticket (in a different state) where the officer crossed off the address and wrote a different one on the ticket.