Byron Residents Want Governor to Investigate Police Dept. ‘Speed Traps’

Residents in Byron are fed up with the city’s police department, and are trying to get the attention of Governor Nathan Deal.

According to Matt Barnes, who lives in Macon but works in Byron, he has seen what he calls the ‘blatant operation’ the Byron Police Department is running to make money for themselves.

Barnes is alleging that officers are only writing tickets in bring in revenue for their department, and are not doing their duties of protecting the citizens of the city.

“I hired an attorney and we decided to vigoriously fight it. What has transpired since then has been absolutely comical…they (the city) took great offense to somebody standing up to them,” Barnes says.

Barnes began asking questions to some of the city’s residents, and found many others held the same feelings he had about the police. So he began collecting signatures, and penned a letter to the Governor.

Barnes also questioned why one officer, Corporal Farris, had written some 3,600 tickets in the past two years, when there are only around 3,100 residents within the city. Barnes asked for Farris’ numbers in an open records request with the city. The computer pulled the officer’s citations from a one month period, which happened to be 150, and gave out an average for the two years based on that number.

Byron Police Chief Wesley Cannon says, that number is not accurate. Farris’ actual number of citations written is much lower than the 3,600 the computer gave out.

“Officers are only working 14 days a month, on a full-time schedule. So that’s six months out of the year,” Barnes explains. “For someone to keep up 150 tickets a month for 24 months…that’s just not possible.”

Barnes says, he still wants to get the Governor involved. 

“We’ve written a petition to the Governor, to ask him to investigate and determine if what they’re doing is legal. Or if they’re doing it primarily for the collection of revenue.”

Chief Cannon, says he has nothing to hide. 

“We would welcome any investigation…We’ve made a call to the governor’s office and asked if we can request him to come in and do the audit. We welcome…we don’t have to have the petition signed, and the Governor forcing an investigation. If they will come in at my request, I’ve already made that call. I don’t know if they will, but I wish they would, because I’ve got nothing to hide.”