Private security use of speeding tickets questioned
KERSEY, Colo. Sept 28 2019
A large private ranch in Colorado has begun enforcing its speed limit by using a private security officer to issue speeding tickets.
The Weld County District Attorney said an unusual speeding ticket that garnered attention on Reddit is not something his office would ever enforce but that the ticket is being issued by a private firm.
A driver posted a speeding ticket on his social media website that was issued by the “70 Ranch, LLC” and contains the signature of a security officer.
“If payment is not made, or if the violator is a repeat offender, the violator and company may lose the right to have access to the 70 Ranch,” the citation says.
“Frankly, until you’ve sent this to us, I have never seen this before,” said Weld County DA Michael Rourke. “It is certainly not authorized under Colorado law from a law enforcement perspective. That is not a ticket that we would ever enforce in our office.”
Rourke speculated 70 Ranch may have an agreement with drivers who pass through its private property to be ticketed if they break the speed limit rules.
Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesperson for the Colorado Attorney General, said his office doesn’t know enough about the stop to weigh in on the matter.
“We don’t know the nature of the stop. Is someone impersonating an officer? It would not be the state that would handle that, but the local district attorney,” Pacheco said.
Pacheco likened this type of citation to receiving a parking boot on private property. He pointed out actual certified law enforcement officers are not allowed to enforce speed limits on private property.
The Weld County Sheriff’s Department referred questions back to the ranch.
“That ranch is private property, so we do not enforce traffic on that ranch,” a department spokesperson wrote. “However they may have hired their own security for their ranch.”
A woman who answered the phone at 70 Ranch said there is a significant amount of oilfield traffic through the ranch everyday and that a security officer does work on the property.
“Nobody is allowed to do above 20 in front of our shop and above 25 on the ranch,” the woman said, adding she would have their safety officer return a call to 9NEWS.
The website for the ranch — located east of Greeley — describes itself as an entity that “covers over 20 square miles of open terrain” with “a large amount of oil and gas activity that takes place on the ranch.”
