The pills were just some of the hundreds of items on display Friday at the town courthouse as a way to show what Moffett police officers took off the highways before they were banned from patrolling the highways for about four months after being dubbed a speed trap.
The items - including marijuana and an assortment of drug paraphernalia - took up every available space on tables set up on the perimeter of the courthouse and looked like a drug user's dream. Syringes, rolling papers, spoons and scales, pipes, bongs and other drug material that is foreign to those who don't do drugs were among the displayed items.
Moffett Police Chief Charles W. Miller said all the items were confiscated in routine traffic stops in 2006 on U.S. Highway 64, old highway 64, and State Highway 64D in Moffett.
"This is what happened while we were on duty," Miller said motioning to the tables. "Imagine what happened when we weren't."
Miller is referring to about a four-month period in which the town's officers were banned from patrolling U.S. Highway 64 and State Highway 64D after the Oklahoma Highway Patrol's (OHP) investigative division audited the town's revenue from speed enforcement.
OHP officials explained last year that Moffett violated the state speed trap law, enforced by the Department of Public Safety (DPS), that states that the revenue a town or city gets from traffic fines can't exceed more than 50 percent of the town's operating budget.
The audit of the town's 2003 and 2004 budgets revealed that 78 percent of Moffett's operating budget was from traffic tickets in 2003, and 84 percent of its operating budget came from traffic tickets in 2004.
That ban, town officials indicated, gave the town an unfair label as a "speed trap," a reputation they strongly dispute.
"We are not a speed trap," Kathy Luper, chairman of the town board, said Friday. "We're a dope trap."
The ban on the town was rescinded earlier this year after a change in law that prevented towns being banned from patrolling state and federal-aid highways, and Moffett police officers are back on the highways.
Now the future of Moffett police and the town is uncertain after another piece of legislation, pushed by State Rep. Glen "Bud" Smithson (D-Sallisaw) was passed last month that may reverse that ban and take the town's four officers off the highways again.
The 40-page Senate bill, which tackles numerous other topics, gives power back to the Attorney General and the DPS commissioner, who have the authority to direct the OHP to conduct special enforcement on state and federal highways.
Luper said while Gov. Brad Henry has signed the bill, the town has yet to be notified by the DPS. She said they heard the new law won't take effect until Nov. 1 and the town will have to be in violation of something to be taken off the highways.
"We abide by the law," Luper said, noting if the town is over the 50 percent of budget they are in violation. "I think the language needs to be clarified."
Luper said their revenue from traffic tickets is not from speeders, but from other violations.
The town offered proof of the violations officers encountered on the highways by also putting the town's traffic records on display Friday.
In 2006, the town's records indicated that Moffett police issued 37 speeding citations out of the hundreds of citations that officers issued. In 2005, the police department issued 12 speeding citations, records indicate.
"You can see by the numbers we don't issue speeding tickets," Luper said.
But if motorists aren't being stopped for speeding, why are they being stopped in the town?
Luper said the majority of the traffic stops originate from expired tags bogus tags, and other traffic violations, which give officers probable cause. That probable cause led officers to uncover the drugs and other items that were on display Friday.
Luper emphasized that the department does offer assistance to motorists. A 2006 survey of police assisted calls on U.S. Highway 64 included police responding to 134 vehicle assistance calls, 73 pedestrians on foot, and 54 calls in which the officer assisted other police.
According to the documentation that the town provided, the officers also cracked down on those driving under the influence. In 2006, officers issued 103 DUI drug- and alcohol-related citations.
Luper said they set up the display because they wanted the public to be the judge that they are not a speed trap.
Miller said, pointing again to the display, that they are protecting the public. He noted that while the town has a population of just 400, there are 20,000 cars that are on the highways every day.
"Do you think everyone driving down the highway needs to be protected from this?" he asked.
