Dear Mahatma: I've been told that it's unlawful for cops to sit on private property while waiting to cite drivers for speeding. But I often see Sherwood police perched in gas stations and church parking lots waiting to pounce. Am I uninformed or are they crossing legal boundaries? -- Justin
Dear Justin: Somewhere deep in what passes for our brain, we answered this question for a reader in Little Rock. Same essential answer -- police departments ask, or should ask, for permission from the owners before running radar on private property.
That's how it works in Sherwood. So said Lt. Jamie Michaels, who speaks for the department. Not only that, but in speeding hot spots around town in residential areas, folks seek out the police and offer up their driveways any old time, Michaels said.
Dear Mahatma: I'm an avid walker in Sherwood. On one of my routes, there is a car parked at the end of a driveway and it overlaps onto the sidewalk, where I have to get into the street to go around. The car has no license plate, and it appears that it has not been moved for a very long time. Is there some kind of rule about this? -- Ruth
Dear Ruth: Two questions in one week about Sherwood?
Yes, there is a rule. Actually, it's a state statute, Arkansas Code 27-51-1302, "Stopping, standing or parking prohibited in specified places."
The statute says there shall not be any stopping, standing or parking of vehicles, "except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or in compliance with the directions of a police officer or traffic-control device," in a whole bunch of places.
One of which is a sidewalk.
Gosh, Ruth, why not call the Sherwood PD and ask for enforcement? Keep us informed, girl.
Which Ruth did, and was told by the police that this offense would be checked out.
Footnote: This statute also prohibits parking within an intersection, within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, on a crosswalk or within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection. The latter is The Mahatma's big aggravation.
Dear Researcher of All Things Paved: Who regulates the height of humps in parking lots? I have stopped using a certain drugstore because its humps have increased in height to where my Jetta can't pass over gracefully even at the slowest speed. It's always sad when idiots and criminals cause the world to be an even more difficult place than it already is on its own! -- Paved Off
Dear Paved: To our knowledge, official traffic authorities have no jurisdiction over private parking lots and their humps. So you have two choices. First, to patronize another drugstore, which you have done. Second, to speak to the store manager and express your concerns.
As for idiots and criminals, it says in the Good Book -- the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices -- that they are with us always.
Vanity plate seen on a white Jeep Wrangler: ITOETAG.
Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 03/14/2015