Driving You Crazy: How can Red Rocks Community College Police set up speed trap on W. 6th Ave. Frontage Road?

LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Dan from Golden writes, “What’s driving you crazy? Hey Jayson - oftentimes, I see Red Rocks College Police set up a speed trap on the 6th Avenue West frontage road. Isn’t that out of their jurisdiction since they are campus police?”

“It’s a common misconception that I’ve dealt with for many years, but I completely understand,” Chief of Police for Red Rocks Community College Campus Police Department Anthony Schaller said.

The Red Rocks Community College (RRCC) Lakewood campus sits along the W. 6^th Ave. Frontage Road between Indiana Street and Union Boulevard centered at Arbutus Drive. That is the major street that runs directly through campus and the one that campus police patrol and enforce traffic laws on. School property runs for about 1/3 of a mile along the W. 6^th Ave. Frontage Road. That is where people off campus might see a campus police officer looking for speeding drivers, but Chief Schaller tells me they aren’t running radar for traffic on 6^th Ave Frontage Road.

“No, that road does not fall into our jurisdiction. The only two occasions we would be on that road is if the traffic infraction started on Arbutus and the subsequent stop ended on 6^th Frontage Road or if we are called from Lakewood PD for an agency assist to help them with an incident down there.”

That happened recently after a crash occurred right at the intersection of 6^th Ave Frontage Rd & Arbutus on September 16. I noted at the time seeing a RRCC police officer at the scene helping with directing traffic.

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The RRCC campus police technically do have jurisdiction along the part of the W. 6^th Ave. Frontage Road that is on the north side of the property boundary.

On the police department's website, it states, “Police officers of the RRCC Campus Police Department have full law enforcement authority on all property owned or controlled by the college, including streets contiguous to and running through the college’s campus.”

In this context, they could, but don’t interpret “contiguous” to include the W 6^th Ave Frontage Road.

I visited the Lakewood campus several times looking for campus police who might be running radar, but I never saw it happening. There was only one time that I saw campus police patrolling the Lakewood campus, driving from building to building and down Arbutus. Chief Schaller told me they leave enforcement of the Frontage Road to Lakewood police and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. If someone sees a campus police officer parked along the Frontage Road near campus or sees someone pulled over in a neighborhood near campus, it is just wrongly placed perception that they are running radar on the Frontage Road.

“I think there is a misconception that where the traffic stop ends is where the speeding happened and I’ve explained that for all my years here. Arbutus is not a big road so we want to make sure there is a safe place to conduct the stop. If you see someone stopped on 2^nd Ave., that’s because there was an infraction earlier on Arbutus, but it was safest to stop on 2^nd. So there will be times we are seen there or on 6th Ave. Frontage Road or on Deframe Court just west of campus,” Schaller said.

I talked to one resident on Deframe Ct who confirms he has often seen drivers pulled over by Campus Police in his neighborhood. He tells me he has seen fewer stops recently than in past years but tells me it is still happening. The chief tells me they prefer to have drivers who are being pulled over stop in that neighborhood because then both the driver and officer are safely out of traffic.

The chief tells me they truly monitor speeding on campus for safety, not for revenue saying campus is a very high foot traffic area with students walking to or from the RTD light rail station, people waking to the neighboring apartments or just families are out for a walk with their dog on campus.

“All the ticket money goes back to the County, we don’t see a dime of it. So the notion that we are just pulling over students to make money is not true. Our budget is allocated from the state so we don’t get anything extra from writing citations.”

What I found very interesting in my research of this story is that according to the RRCC Campus Police Law Enforcement Authority webpage, it states the Red Rocks Police Department is a full-service police department responsible for providing law enforcement services and ensuring public safety throughout both the Lakewood Campus and Arvada Campus. They state that their responsibilities and duties include enforcing state and local criminal statutes as well as traffic enforcement.

I asked Chief Schaller what would happen if they pulled someone over who has a warrant. I was told they have full powers to arrest and detain people who have a warrant. As long as they follow proper extradition parameters, campus police are allowed to arrest a person on site and will later transport that person to the Jefferson County detention facility.

“They just think we are there for security, that we don’t have arresting powers but we do. Our primary goal is safety. That’s what we are here for and that’s what we are about.”

So bottom line Dan — when you see a RRCC police officer parked along 6^th Ave. Frontage Road, they are watching traffic come down the hill on Arbutus, not watching you rolling down the Frontage Road.

Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.