Crime & Safety

WCCO: Spring Lake Park Ranks #2 in Twin Cities for Speeding Tickets Issued Per Capita

Nearby cities in the Fridley-area didn't rank nearly as high in WCCO-TV's review of 2011 enforcement records.

Spring Lake Park police wrote the second-highest number of speeding tickets per capita among cities in the Twin Cities metro area, according to a report on WCCO-TV.

That year, Spring Lake Park police wrote 1,150 tickets for excessive speed. The top three locations in the city of 6,457 residents:

  • 1500 block of 81st Avenue NE
  • 1500 block of County Road 10 NE
  • 1200 block of County Road 10 NE

Nearby cities ranked much lower: Coon Rapids (21), St. Anthony (33), Fridley (53), Blaine (60), Columbia Heights (76).

Find out what's happening in Fridleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to the WCCO-TV report, Spring Lake Park "wrote eight times the amount of tickets per person than cities 10 times its size." The reason seems to be, as in No. 1-ranked Edina, highways: 

Again three major highways make up the majority of the roads in this two and a half square mile city. The department believes stepped-up speed enforcement keeps its 100,000 daily commuters safe. ... “Do we like to do it. No? But it’s something that’s required of us to do,” [Spring Lake Park Police] Chief Ebeltoft said.

Find out what's happening in Fridleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

See the full WCCO-TV report at minnesota.cbslocal.com. There you can also download the full database.

Map Legend
    Green pins: 0 to 500 tickets
    Yellow pins: 500 to 1,500 tickets
    Red pins: 1,500 or more tickets

Police departments that cover multiple cities have a pin in each of the cities they cover. Sheriff’s offices, state patrol, park police, University of Minnesota police and airport police are not shown.


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