Summit County's five law-enforcement agencies and Colorado State Patrol collectively handed out more than 7,000 traffic tickets last year, but they weren't gunning for quotas or cash, local authorities say.

“There is no such thing as a quota,” Dillon Police Chief Joe Wray said. “That is a common perception. That, and that we use (tickets) for revenue generation. Those are absolutely false.”

Other law-enforcement agencies in Summit County, including Colorado State Patrol, concurred. Traffic stops, they insist, are not about quotas, but compliance, and the agencies don't see the revenue generated by citations. That money is routed into town, county or state general funds, officials said.

“There's no set number put on anybody,” Colorado State Patrol spokesman Josh Lewis said. “(The money) does not go back into state patrol. We get our funding from a highway user tax fund … that comes from tax on gasoline.”

Breckenridge was the biggest purveyor of speeding and traffic tickets in 2011, beating out CSP and the Sheriff's Office with 1,336 tickets, but all five local law enforcement agencies were in the same general range.

The Summit County Sheriff's Office issued 1,301 moving violations in 2011, Frisco handed out 1,288 tickets, Colorado State Patrol totaled 1,234 tickets last year on Interstate 70 in Summit County, while Dillon officers wrote a total of 1,142 citations. Comparable numbers for tickets from the Silverthorne police were not available.

Speed traps

Summit County drivers know where there tend to be patrol cars lurking.

“Hwy. 9 when you are passing Frisco, just before the speed limit increases to 50,” stated Breckenridge resident Kelly Ozinga in an online comment. “Anywhere on Main Street in Breck and between Dillon and Summit Cove. Those are just the three places I got tickets in the last three months!”

In online comments, local motorists named Breckenridge in general, Highway 9, I-70 and especially Highway 6 between Dillon and Keystone as some of the county's most notorious places to get a traffic ticket.

But many of those locations are places where there tend to be problems, local law-enforcement officials say.

“We find that our biggest area for violations is along Hwy. 6 through the Town of Dillon and then out toward Keystone,” Wray said. “Regardless of how much signage we put out … we still find people are speeding 15 mph over the posted limit. Officers are concerned because speed is still the No. 1 cause for injury and traffic fatalities in the United States.”

Wray also noted that the corridor between Dillon and Keystone is a federally designated hazardous materials route, making it especially dangerous ground for accidents.

In Silverthorne, just having a patrol car visible to traffic is a tactic used to discourage speeding — particularly in school zones.

“We do not compromise on the safety of the kids,” Silverthorne police chief Mark Hanschmidt said. “It's a two-pronged approach. Our officers sitting in plain view in the school zones, we want to that to act as a deterrant. Writing the ticket isn't that big a deal, it's getting the compliance and making sure our kids are safe.”