West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana may be in the south, but a recent incident transformed the city into a scene from a Spaghetti Western movie. The Bayou State recently refined the rules for using cameras or other automatic enforcement methods by passing a new law.

Lawmakers modified the process for issuing tickets in school or construction zones and further explained how drivers can context them if they believe they were wrongfully issued. Ron Tetzel, a Constable for the city, pitched the idea of installing speed cameras in a busy school district to Superintendent Chandler Smith at the beginning of the year, Unfiltered with Kiran reported.

Tetzel’s plan involved two permanent cameras that would send $150 tickets to speeders. School board members, the camera contractors, and city officials were all attracted to his plan due to the revenue it was likely to generate. Smith and Tetzel waited separately for permits, installation, and the signing of heaps of paperwork.

Tetzel took matters into his own hands

Instead of waiting for the law to catch up, Tetzel started enforcing the zone on his own. He even dressed the part with a reflective vest, a tripod, a hat, and his radar gun. Tetzle used the radar gun to record driver’s license plates to write and mail tickets to the registered address.

The rogue officer hand-wrote and mailed approximately 5,000 tickets. Superintendent Smith had no idea any of this was happening until complaints began flooding his inbox about surprise tickets. A few officers in two nearby towns notified citizens that they had issued those tickets illegally and directed them to call the Small Claims Court.

Enough phone calls came through to get Senator Caleb Kleinpeter’s attention. He then contacted Attorney General Liz Murrill, who didn’t waste a second in shutting down the highly illegal operation. The AG stated that Tetzel never produced or signed a legally binding document explaining the revenue distribution. Drivers also didn’t have a way to contest tickets.