Citizens of Bridgeport should be utterly ashamed of their police department, unless they, too, have a disdain for tourists and those from out-of-town. When I drove through that town on 5/27/07, I had passed through three different speed zones where the speed limits changed rapidly. About every three minutes, I would see a squad car either positioned to pull over a passerby or already pulling one over.
About two minutes later, I was one of their subjects, as the officer (Waddell) pulled me over, told me his name and asked me if I was in an emergency. I explained that I was coming from out of town and had never been through Bridgeport before. He took my license and insurance card, went to his squad car (with his co-officer) for about 10 minutes, then came back with a citation. If there was a perfect description for being "run through like cattle, " this "officer's" work definitely fit the description.
After the officer told me I was "free to go, " I went toward the road I needed to head to Weatherford and subsequently noticed about three more squad cars simultaneously pulling motorists over and carrying out their gotcha game, simply so that the mayor and city councilmen can boast about lower sales tax rates offset by ticket revenues. Had this community's population been 300 less, they would've been subject to an audit by the State Comptroller's Office examining whether more than 20 percent of their revenues are generated from speeding tickets. Guess that 300 saved this backwards little community.
Folks, if you can, avoid Bridgeport, Texas at all costs. The only lively thing about this town is to see what must be their entire patrol unit doing nothing but operating speed traps as though they're on a deer hunt.in effect, by not giving that community any business, perhaps we can show them that they must come to terms with the fact that we're in the 21st century and that menacing out-of-towners could only destroy their tourism industry.
As for calling the municipal court, if you get a ticket on a Sunday, you may not find out what the fine is until the next Friday. Three to four business days, according to the municipal court clerk - whose number you have to find on the "city"'s Web site. The number I called that was listed on the ticket went straight to a voicemail - another sign of how backwards this little dot on the map is.
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