MISSOURI: Montgomery Archives

Recently, the police department has received a couple of complaints of barking dogs disturbing the peace of another. As you might expect, the City has an ordinance concerning animal noise.

Any person who owns or has control of a dog, even though it is confined cannot allow the animal to “give forth or cause” any loud or unusual noise. And, no, I don’t know what a dog’s “unusual” noise might be.

Montgomery City Chief of Police Phil Ahern told MontgomeryAndMe.com that he has been receiving complaints from the people and businesses that border Allen Street, which runs parallel to the railroad tracks, about vehicles going too fast. Chief Ahern said, “It’s kind of a nice smooth street and a lot of people use it just to stay off of 19 and Sturgeon Street.

From time to time when a police officer (trooper or deputy) writes a traffic ticket, the violator asks, “Why can’t I just get a warning?” That’s a good question, really, but there’s no good, one-size-fits-all answer.

Why does an officer choose to write a ticket rather than a warning or vice-versa? The answer to that is, “I don’t know.” The ticket versus warning decision-making process is different for each officer.

Some ne’er-do-wells have been at work in town recently. The Police Department has received reports of at least three vehicles which have been damaged by “keying.” Keying usually means the painted surface of a vehicle has been damaged by scratching with a key or other metal object. Whatever the object used to scratch the surface, the damage done is visible and costly to repair, especially on newer vehicles. Sometimes the vandal (I really can’t use the word or words I’d like to because that terminology wouldn’t make it into print) may have a perceived reason for doing the damage.