Dalton has lived in Fairbanks since 1949 and is involved in the local Republican Party and other community organizations. She said UAF officer Marc Poeschel called her on the phone to discuss the incident and harassed her.

In a letter that Dalton has circulated widely among UAF officials and local politicians, she said that on the morning of March 11 she was driving south on Farmer's Loop Road when she saw a UAF police cruiser parked in a driveway "waiting in the weeds" for speeders. She says that after she passed him, the officer "zoomed" past her on icy roads to pull over a pickup truck that, to Dalton, appeared to be obeying the speed limit.

The officer pulled the truck over on University Avenue near the Airport Road intersection, but he did not fully pull off the road, wrote Dalton, and as she approached the two vehicles in the right lane "I stayed in my lane, and when I saw the officer was opening his car door, I honked my horn to warn him of my presence."

Because of this, Dalton said, Officer Poeschel called her later that day and told her that he was considering issuing her a citation.

Coincidentally, the police department recently finished training two new officers for patrol.

"Your gendarmes apparently have everything under control on campus and have plenty of time on their hands to drive off campus into public territory and look for little old ladies driving pickup trucks," she wrote.

UAF police lieutenant Syrilyn Tong said that when Dalton first saw Poeschel he was not "waiting in the weeds" but turning around to pull over the speeding truck.

"Officer Poeschel had been on his way to check on the Yak farm on Ballaine," she said. "That's university property and we have to keep an eye on it."

Tong said that the speeding driver was also tailgating other drivers, and that Poeschel determined that the speeder's actions were a hazard to other drivers. Tong said the video tape in Poeschel's car clearly shows that there were no cars in the left lane preventing Dalton from getting over, and said that a failure to do so violates Alaska statute AS 28.35.185(b)(2).

Tong said that injuries from passing vehicles during traffic stops are one of the most dangerous aspects of police work, and that the department takes the issue very seriously.

According to department records, officers made 1,551 traffic stops in 2005. Of those, about 30 percent were off-campus stops.

Tong says that those numbers may be misleading however.

"This is just a rough estimate, but I would guess that about 70 percent of those off-campus stops are the result of a probable cause that the officer witnesses on campus," she said. "The statistics only show where the actual stop took place."

Tong said that UAF officers are required to pass through much of Fairbanks as they travel between UAF's several campuses and outlying properties, and that when they witness a dangerous driver they are morally bound to act.

"We don't pull people over for a broken taillight or other small offences," she said. "But we do if we judge the driver to be endangering others."

Tong added that UAF officers do have legal authority to make stops off campus.

But Dalton says that Poeschel was especially out of line in calling her up to threaten her with a citation. She said that she asked Poeschel if he was arresting her, and that he said he could either warn her or give her a citation.

"I wanted him to cite me, but he didn't," she said. "I'd like to see him make his case in court."

"I think that part of the reason that he was afraid to come on my property and threaten me in person is that he knows I have a conceal-and-carry permit [for a gun]," Dalton said.

Dalton also said that she feels that the UAF police presence in town is another symptom of the elitism that runs through UAF's relations with Fairbanks. She said that she appreciates the college but doesn't come here anymore. Dalton said she has a cracked windshield and is now afraid to drive on campus.

"I'm sure they'd stop me," she said. "Everybody up there probably thinks that I'm just an old crank because of all this, but I'll stand up for myself. They've given this guy a badge and power, and he may be a decent guy, but I don't think it's right for him to be just sitting in the weeds waiting to fill his quota."