I was recently issued a ticket for failure to stop but the sign was placed in a parking lot in front of a Safeway (grocery) store. Is private property within the jurisdiction of the local town police?
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I was recently issued a ticket for failure to stop but the sign was placed in a parking lot in front of a Safeway (grocery) store. Is private property within the jurisdiction of the local town police?
Was there an accident? Although I'm not personally familiar with Colorado's statutes, in most states the police seem to only ticket for traffic violations on private property when there is an accident.
I'm interested in this. I have fairly good knowledge of the California vehicle code but have never seen anything that addresses this issue. I hope someone can offer some insight.
No, there was no accident involved.
The basic setup is this: The Safeway grocery store is located at the corner of two large streets. You can enter the parking lot from either street but right in the middle of the parking lot is a stop sign which is approximately 150 feet from either street. I have never seen anybody actually stop for this sign, they just slow down and blow through it (which is what I did). There happened to be a police office on the lot at the time and she drove over to me as I was parking. She took my licenese, reg. and ins. and went back to her car. When she returned, she handed me the ticket for $80 and 4 pts.
What specific violation was cited on the ticket?
"Failure to stop at stop sign as Required"
It depends on whether there is an agreement between the store and the police department. Usually there will be signs posted. If the sign was not regualtion, that would be one out. Another would be if they can't produce the agreement, in the signs are not posted. Check the city ordinances.
I had my day in court. The prosecutor stated that there was no agreement in place with the local property owner to enforce traffic laws on their property. As such, the ticket had "questionable merit" and offered me a 2pt (versus 4pt) violation. I took the deal. Regardless of the legal grounds, I did blow through the stop sign so I thought that was fair.
In CA stop signs on private property cannot generally be enforced. However, blowing such a stop sign could be an element in a reckless driving in a parking lot charge, and, in the event of an accident, could result in fault being assigned by the insurance company or civil court against the person who ran the sign.Quote:
Quoting chuckycheese
If the stop sign (in CA) controls access to the street, it is similarly not generally enforceable. There are a few exceptions, but generally this is not the case. The stop signs are usually posted at the request of the city but they can not generally enforced the same as running a stop sign or failing to obey a traffic control device. They can be an element in an unsafe entry into traffic violation, however.
- Carl
The DA agreed with everything you basically stated and the ticket was dropped. The key to me winning this was:
1. I contacted the owner of the property and verified he did not have an agreement in place with the city to enforce traffic laws on his property.
2. That the sign itself was on private property (I brought pictures to court with me).