A man in Adams County, Colorado, is wondering why a county sheriff ticketed him for a broken windshield as he sat in the parking lot of the very place that was about to replace the window, a local TV station reports.
Denver’s NBC affiliate, KUSA 9 News, recently reported that a Denver man received the ticket only days after a rock had been thrown at his car and only minutes before his appointment with the auto repair shop.
The day before he got his ticket, motorist Nick Berlin had called Absolute Auto Glass to make an appointment to get his windshield replaced. As he neared the shop, an Adams County sheriff flashed his lights and pulled him over right in the repair shop’s lot. The sheriff then actually issued a ticket for a broken windshield.
Berlin and the staff of the auto glass shop told 9 News that they had informed the officer that the car was scheduled for a window replacement just as the motorist was pulled over, but the officer didn’t seem interested in the information.
9 News also reviewed the scheduling records and was satisfied that the shop had indeed made the appointment to replace the windshield the day before the ticket was issued.
“I got a ticket for something that I was close as I could be to resolving,” Nick Berlin said.
A member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado noted that this drive to force police to become revenue generators is the real problem.
“The more and more police officers see their role as ticketing as opposed to protecting public safety, that has a tendency to erode the public trust,” the ACLU’s Denise Maes said.
The Adams County sheriff’s department refused to issue a statement to 9 News, and Mr. Berlin said he would fight the ticket in traffic court.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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