By Brian Anderson
Arizona Republic

Jan. 16, 1999

CAVE CREEK, CAREFREE — Ignited by an unbridled stance against traffic scofflaws, criminal and civil court cases in Cave Creek and Carefree skyrocketed last year, officials said.

With an ever expanding population, officials in both towns don’t expect the onslaught to hit the brakes any time soon.

Although a relatively small percentage of the overall total, criminal traffic cases ripped through the Cave Creek courtroom at a gassed up rate.

Excessive speeding and other serious traffic cases in Cave Creek cruised from 97 in 1997 to 159 in 1998, an increase of 64 percent, court figures show.

Making up the brunt of all cases, civil traffic no-nos like speeding and not signaling a lane change jumped 56 percent during the same period, according to statistics.

All totaled, 572 more cases, or 36 percent, passed through Cave Creek’s halls of justice last year than in 1997.

“Because the roads in Cave Creek are narrow with lots of dips and curves, speed limits are set lower than people are used to driving on south of the Carefree Highway,” said Town Attorney Tom Irvine. “There is a tendency to go faster, especially with a lot of the guests that come to the town.”

Like their neighbor to the west, civil traffic cases in Carefree were the main ingredient in a stew of nearly 2,400 court filings, records show.

That court took on 703 more civil and criminal traffic and criminal cases in 1998 than in 1997.

Carefree Mayor Hugh Stevens attributed the upshift to requests in early 1998 by both towns that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office “beef up” traffic enforcement.

“We’ve taken a very hard stand because we’re concerned in certain areas that people continually bust the hump,” Stevens said. “We’ve just told the police to get tough and get these people in here and maybe the message will get around.”

For its effort, Carefree raked in more than $100,000 in fines and other sanctions, said Court Administrator Sheila Frost. Cave Creek took in more than $200,000 in fines before handing over about a third of it to the state and other agencies.

Most, if not all, of the revenue generated in the court is used to pay the sheriff’s office yearly tab for police services, Irvine said.

Stevens and Irvine said heightened enforcement will rule their local roads until lead-footed drivers lay off the gas.

“We might very well become the speed trap capital of northern Phoenix, but so be it,” Stevens said. “We’d like to get the word out that that’s what’s going to happen.”