Let this be a Warning to all tourists planning to travel into Door County WI, if at all possible stay clear of Algoma WI.
Why stay clear of Algoma Wi, you ask. Following is my experience with their un tourist friendlly police department.
I went camping ten miles north of Sturgeon Bay WI, at Harbor Village camp ground. On my return trip to Manitowoc, Wi i was stopped by the Algoma police department. After leaving the camp grounds i first went thru Sturgeon Bay, WI. Leaving Sturgeon Bay going south the speed limit is 35mph for an extended distance going south out of town. I had two out of state SUV's pass me in this 35 mph zone because i was obeying the speed limit.
I followed these two vehicles into and thru Algoma. They went five mph over most of the time. Going south out of Algoma, the speed limit goes from 25 to 35 to 45 to 55. I feel this speed limit increase is done in such a way to make it a very good speed trap. The two vehicles were about 10 vehicles ahead of me and started to increase their speed up to 60 mph and i followed suit. The 55 mph sign is a tenth of a mile down the road from where the cop was sitting. Low and behold the Algoma cop is sitting 200 feet OUT of the city limits checking the speed of vehicles aproaching that are still in the city per the officer.
You guessed it, I got pulled over and it took ar least five minutes for him to come to the car.in that five minutes there was a person with him that got out and retrieved some thing from the back seat and then went back into the front seat. When the officer finally came to the window he said, do you know why I'm stopping you, and i said is it for speeding and he said yes. Next he asked for my license and asked if i had my seat belt on which i didn't. The officer then went to the squad car and returned with a ticket for speeding 15 over and a warning for no seat belt.
I had over Thirty years with no record, showing I'm not a habitual speeder but that was of no good to this officer. I felt a very fair thing would of been a ticket for no seat belt and a warning for the speeding. When the officer gave me the ticket i said i didn't under stand why i received a ticket and the other two were o.K. At the most i was going 55 and had just started to increase the speed keeping pace with the two vehicles ahead of me. I screwed up and forgot to ask to see the speed on his radar gun. When i again told the officer that i felt it was wrong to ticket me and the two vehicles ahead of me didn't get a ticket. He then said, what did you say, leading me to believe that he was also going to get me for disorderlly conduct so i said I'm talkin to myself.
The real kicker is that Algoma charges the MAX for this offense, $160.80 while other localties, Manitowoc, Crivitz area and Mequon all charge around $40.00 less. If the police are interested in protecting their citizens so much the police would make sure the speed thru down town is observed, but most times they sit just before the speed increases to 55 mph.
In closing i stonglly recomend all tourist to stay clear of Algoma WI and don't stop there if you have to pass thru if this is the way they treat money spending tourists.
Richard Manitowoc Wisconsin
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