Police don't appreciate alerting drivers to enforcement?

Nina Selipsky • Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Police don't appreciate alerting drivers to enforcement?</h1>
                <h2><p>A Seattle man was issued a $138 ticket for warning drivers of a police speed trap recently. Daniel Gehlke was standing on 14th Avenue S. and S. Washington Street — in the Central Area near Bailey Gatzert Elementary School — with a handmade sign written in black marker on a Rubbermaid top.</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/nina-selipsky-crosscut-com/">Nina Selipsky</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>A Seattle man was issued a $138 ticket for warning drivers of a police speed trap recently. Daniel Gehlke was standing on 14th Avenue S. and S. Washington Street — in the Central Area near Bailey Gatzert Elementary School — with a handmade sign written in black marker on a Rubbermaid top. The message read, "Cops Ahead! Stop at sign and light!" A police officer confronted Gehlke after about five minutes. Municipal law forbids using the word "stop" in signs along the roads, but, <a href="http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Seattle-mans-speed-trap-warning-sign-lands-him-138-ticket-309157131.html?tab=video&c=y&ref=avalancheghost.one">according to KOMO</a>, Gehlke believes he was ticketed because of the content of the sign and not his crafting of the language. The law also covers signs with "slow," leading Gehlke to wonder whether police would go after all those unofficial signs telling people, "Slow, children at play." He plans to appeal.</p>
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A Seattle man was issued a $138 ticket for warning drivers of a police speed trap recently. Daniel Gehlke was standing on 14th Avenue S. and S. Washington Street — in the Central Area near Bailey Gatzert Elementary School — with a handmade sign written in black marker on a Rubbermaid top. The message read, "Cops Ahead! Stop at sign and light!" A police officer confronted Gehlke after about five minutes. Municipal law forbids using the word "stop" in signs along the roads, but, according to KOMO, Gehlke believes he was ticketed because of the content of the sign and not his crafting of the language. The law also covers signs with "slow," leading Gehlke to wonder whether police would go after all those unofficial signs telling people, "Slow, children at play." He plans to appeal.

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By Nina Selipsky

Nina Selipsky is an editorial intern at Crosscut. She is a senior at Lakeside School in Seattle, where she is an editor and writer for the school newspaper. Nina spent last summer working with a non-p