HOPEWELL, Va. -- Sheriff Greg Anderson said Hopewell is being "sensationalized" in the national media over traffic enforcement on Interstate 295 because state lawmakers and high-level Virginia State Police officials are seeking to end the project and seize revenue from local ticketing.
Anderson said that since the implementation of the project five years ago, state police have used intimidation and threatened to arrest one of his deputies. He also recounted at least one incident where he was personally subjected to "aggressive, threatening and abusive" language from a state trooper.
Since AAA Mid-Atlantic last week blasted the "ticket-writing finesse" of Hopewell sheriff's deputies along the roughly 2-mile stretch of I-295, Anderson has received calls from news media all over the country, asking about Hopewell's "Million Dollar Mile."
The organization's criticism came just days after a Hopewell General District Court judge overruled Commonwealth's Attorney Rick Newman's motion to take over local traffic cases relating to the I-295 Project.
Anderson said attempts to get local deputies off Hopewell's highway strip predate Newman's recent moves by years and are being orchestrated by forces from a much higher political level who want to seize power from localities.
Anderson said he believes that State Police Superintendent W. Steven Flaherty is the catalyst behind these attempts.
"Flaherty is a master politician, he's an extremely powerful man," he said.
Flaherty did not comment on Anderson's claims.
"We're not going to engage in a debate over this matter," Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said on his behalf.
Anderson also said that Republican Virginia state senators John Watkins and Ryan McDougle are part of the effort to end Hopewell's ticketing efforts on I-295. Earlier this year, Watkins introduced Senate Bill 500 in the Virginia General Assembly -- legislation that would have stripped the ability of localities to collect traffic fine revenue on interstates. The bill died Jan. 18 on a 11-4 vote in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.
A toned down version of SB500, offered by Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, also failed to get past a subcommittee. House Bill 834 would have required certain local DUI fines be used strictly for education, split between local schools and the state Literary Fund.
Anderson said he believes that Flaherty asked Watkins to introduce SB500 to seize ticketing control from the Hopewell Sheriff's Office.
"Sen. Watkins wasn't just sitting around thinking, 'Man, I got to do something about this Sheriff Anderson.' There is no reason for him to even know who I am," Anderson said.
Watkins called Anderson's comments "highly inaccurate," stating that he had talked to state police officials only once in preparation for the introduction of his bill.
"Hopewell's I-295 did not even come up in that discussion," Watkins said.
Watkins said what prompted him to draft the bill was the Constitution of Virginia, which designates fines from ticketing to the state Literary Fund, to pay for education and schools.
"This was designed so local law enforcement agencies won't use quotas to fill financial revenue shortfalls," Watkins said. "But in recent years, more and more localities have been doing just that.
"The sheriff's accusations are without any substance," Watkins said. "There is no conspiracy against Hopewell; they are just the ones who raise a lot of revenue [from ticketing] in a very small area."
Anderson also believes that lawmakers in the General Assembly asked AAA to publicly blast Hopewell's traffic enforcement efforts on I-295.
Last week, Martha Meade, manager of public and government affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic, wrote in a press release that "the intense speed enforcement by 11 sheriff's deputies for 14 hours per day is suspect for an entity whose primary role is not traffic enforcement but rather courtroom security and other functions."
Anderson is convinced that Meade acted on behalf of Watkins.
"She is using the same catchphrases and the same buzz words," he said. "What I resent from that woman is that she is talking about me and my operation without contacting me. I think the woman is merely a puppet of these senators."
Watkins denies having contacted Meade.
"I never called AAA, I do not have anything to do with promoting this piece," Watkins said. "They did that on their own."
Meade also denies having discussed the AAA statements with state officials prior to their release.
"AAA has not, at any time prior to the release of this data, been in touch with any member of the General Assembly or the Virginia State Police on this issue," she said on Friday. "It has only been in the past four days, since our position has ignited the issue, that have we contacted officials and representatives."
Meade said that AAA's press release resulted from an analysis of an Auditor of Public Accounts report that revealed a disproportionate number of speeding tickets in Hopewell.
"It was that report, coupled with news coverage of the court action by Hopewell's commonwealth's attorney regarding revenue from speeding tickets, that prompted our action," Meade said.
Anderson said he launched the I-295 Project in 2007 after a Hopewell District Court judge told him that in 16 years, state police had written less than 100 tickets on the interstate strip through Hopewell.
"Initially, the sergeant [patrolling I-295 in the Hopewell area] welcomed us with open arms," Anderson said.
Things changed six months later, when Anderson publicly recalled his conversation with the local judge about the small amount of tickets written by state police.
"When I said that in public, that got up the line somewhere," he said.
"The next thing we know, there were three to five state trooper units out there, on our little stretch of the highway, five to six days a week. They even had motorcycles there," Anderson said. He added that Virginia State Police were present on I-295 for more than a year -- but not to write tickets.
"They were warning drivers so we wouldn't be writing tickets," he said.
Anderson said that the relationship between sheriff's deputies and state police got worse in April 2009, when a state police sergeant threatened one of the deputies. The sergeant told the deputy that he was illegally operating stationary radar on the side of the highway and ordered him to get in the median strip.
"The sergeant threatened [the deputy] and told him he was going to write him a summons and have him arrested if he didn't move," Anderson said.
Several weeks later, when Hopewell's courthouse was evacuated after a bomb threat, the same sergeant who had previously confronted the deputy, talked to him in an "abusive" and "threatening" manner.
Anderson said this encounter was the final straw that prompted him to take action.
But a subsequent meeting with Flaherty did not lead to an improvement of the situation. To the contrary, it resulted in even more presence of state troopers on I-295.
Geller said that state police's enforcement efforts are for the purpose of saving lives and ensuring the laws of the state are upheld and not for financial gain. Geller did not directly address Anderson's claim that state troopers are blocking Hopewell deputies from writing tickets on the interstate.
"The Virginia State Police has been patrolling and safeguarding all 52.56 miles of Interstate 295 since the first section opened in 1981, and we will continue to do so for the benefit and safety of the motoring public," Geller said.
Copyright 2012 - The Progress-Index, Petersburg, Va.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
