4 Florida Speed Trap Towns Drivers Learn About the Hard Way

How does a tiny Florida town become famous among drivers for all the wrong reasons?

For a few of them, it started with how many tickets their officers wrote.

Here’s the story behind each town’s reputation, and what drivers should know before they pass through.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Traffic laws and penalties are subject to change, so confirm the current rules with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

1. Waldo

In the town of Waldo, seven police officers filed 11,603 traffic citations in 2013, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

Gainesville, a much larger city, filed 25,461 that year.

AAA first listed Waldo as a traffic trap in August 1995, Insurance Journal reported in 2018.

AAA had named Waldo one of only two traffic traps nationwide by 2014.

AAA also put up billboards warning drivers about Waldo, according to Reason.

The Monitor said that in 2014 you had to speed up and slow down six times along one short segment of highway through Waldo.

The city council voted 4-1 to eliminate the police department, CBS News reported on October 1, 2014.

The move followed objections from five officers, who said they were forced to meet a ticket quota.

In December 2014, a state attorney announced his office would file no criminal charges against Waldo’s former police chief.

In 2014, he said, ticket quotas weren’t illegal in Florida.

Waldo’s Ticket Count, Officer by Officer

Divide the 11,603 citations Waldo wrote in 2013 by the town’s seven officers and you get about 1,660 each.

Gainesville’s 25,461 citations, spread over the 300 officers the Monitor counted there, come to about 85 each.

That puts Waldo’s per-officer count at roughly 20 times Gainesville’s.

If you want to compare any two towns this way, divide by officers first, since bigger departments write more citations.

2. Lawtey

Lawtey spent more than two decades on AAA’s traffic trap list.

The town joined Waldo on that list in August 1995.

CBS News reported in 2003 that Lawtey issued 5,257 tickets in 2002.

Fines accounted for 34 percent of the town budget, AAA said.

Insurance Journal reported in 2018 that AAA’s investigation found profit, not safety, was the primary motivation for citations in Lawtey and Waldo.

Lawtey’s mayor and others asked AAA to lift the designation because it cast a shadow on the town.

AAA removed both towns in 2018, saying they had made improvements.

3. Hampton

CNN called Hampton a speed trap city in March 2014, when Florida lawmakers were pushing to dissolve it.

The population was 477, with one police officer for every 25 residents.

Reason put the department at 19 officers.

Hampton’s 2011 total was 9,515 speeding tickets and more than $253,000 in revenue.

You reached a 1,260-foot stretch of busy highway that Hampton claimed a mile outside of town.

A state audit of Hampton found 31 instances in which local rules or state or federal laws were violated.

CBS Miami reported in March 2015 that an AAA lobbyist said the auto club began publicizing speed traps in Waldo, Lawtey and Hampton in the 1990s.

By September 2014, Hampton’s police department had been disbanded.

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4. Coleman

Coleman is the oldest speed trap story on this list.

In December 1966, Time reported that AAA had told its 10 million members the town, north of Tampa, had suddenly become the nation's biggest speed trap.

The town's population was 921.

In five months, the police chief arrested 369 motorists, none of them Coleman citizens.

Governor Haydon Burns also wrote the mayor a letter urging that Coleman treat tourists as welcome guests.

Waldo and Lawtey wouldn't join AAA's list until August 1995, nearly three decades later.

2015 Quota Ban

FlaglerLive reported in March 2015 that an AAA lobbyist, speaking about Senate Bill 264, said the auto club began publicizing speed traps in Waldo, Lawtey and Hampton in the 1990s.

The bill cleared the House 116-1 after its 39-0 Senate vote.

Only one lawmaker voted no.

The governor approved it on May 14, 2015, and it took effect on July 1, 2015.

If you get a ticket from a city or county officer, section 316.640 of the 2026 Florida Statutes bars that agency from setting quotas.

It covers sheriff's offices and municipal police departments.

Chapter 2015-15, the same bill, also requires a county or municipality to report its traffic citation revenue and its law enforcement costs to the Legislative Auditing Committee under certain circumstances.