FERRIDAY — A traffic stop of one of their own in a local town led Louisiana legislators to express concern about excessive traffic law enforcement in some towns — in other words, the so-called “speed traps.”

House Concurrent Resolution 215, adopted near the end of the legislative session, expresses concern many municipalities may be using speed limit enforcement for town funding rather than safety.

The idea for the resolution came about when District 12 Rep. Hollis Downs, of Ruston, was pulled over for speeding in Ferriday.

Downs did not receive a ticket because a legislator cannot be ticketed during the legislative session.

District 21 Rep. Andy Anders was one of the resolution’s co-authors.

“We’re not here to say police don’t need to slow down traffic, but when you start using it to generate revenue you’re abusing the system,” Anders said.

Next year, some type of bill to limit the amount of revenue a town can collect from ticket writing will be introduced, probably to the criminal justice committee, Anders said.

Enough information about Ferriday was not available to determine if it was a speed trap, Anders said.

Running a speed trap can actually be counterproductive to generating revenue for a town, Anders said.

“If people are avoiding your town, if you are running customers away, you lose your (sales) tax base,” he said.

Ferriday Police Chief Richard Madison said he is bothered by the resolution.

Speed limits in Ferriday, which has the narrowest thoroughfare along U.S. 65, are about safety, Madison said.

There are five red lights in Ferriday, and every street running north-to-south crosses U.S. 65.

“If we don’t slow it down, we will have multiple traffic fatalities,” Madison said.

“Good enforcement reduces traffic fatalities.”

Ferriday officers don’t write speeding tickets unless an offender is speeding at least 10 miles per hour more than the speed limit, Madison said.

The town has an ordinance to allow officers to write tickets for violations as low as six miles per hour more than the limit, Madison said.

“It’s like saying if you steal $200 its OK, but if you move on up to stealing $500, we’re going to do something about that,” he said.

“How much law violation do we allow before we take it head on?”

Madison said he doesn’t see the town as a speed trap.

More than 30,000 cars pass through Ferriday every day, and with the town writing fewer than 1,000 tickets a month, less than one percent of drivers who pass through Ferriday are ticketed, he said.

“We’re going to keep on enforcing the law as it stands,” Madison said.

“If the legislators change the law, we’ll enforce it based on that.”