By John Dickerson

Avoid the enforcer by visiting speedtraps.org.

I was driving behind an important story source (who shall remain anonymous) when a Department of Public Safety patrol car pulled alongside me (not behind me) with flashing lights ablaze. I slowed down, thinking the patrolman was on his way to an emergency. Wrong.

I slowed to almost 40 miles per hour because I figured the DPS officer wanted to get by. Wrong again. He swooped behind me, turned his lights off and tailed me.

About a minute later he turned the lights back on and pulled me over. Why? "Because you were only going 40 back there.” Only going 40 m.p.h.? What? But you know cops... I quickly cell-phoned my source and told him to go ahead without me. Then, I started nervously digging through my glove box.

I got off without a ticket (probably because I wasn’t speeding--for once), but the story explains why a certain Web site's caught my eye: Speedtrap.org. It’s a handy, national registry of known speed traps--sorted by state and city. Glory! Speedtrap.org lists a number of hidden radar haunts in Phoenix and neighboring Valley cities. And yes, the site tracks known photo-enforcement locations, too.

We can’t control when cops pull us over for no reason, but we can at least know their favorite dugouts.