Posted on 08/04/2006 1:28:17 PM PDT by Cagey
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Charlotte-Mecklenburg police supervisors offered prizes to officers who wrote the most traffic tickets during an eight-day period over the July Fourth holiday.
Five officers from the department's North Division earned $10 gift certificates to Dick's Sporting Goods, although officials Wednesday couldn't say how many tickets were issued between July 1-8.
Police Chief Darrel Stephens and Maj. John Diggs, who oversees the division, said they were not aware of the contest until they were contacted Wednesday by The Charlotte Observer.
"I don't think there is anything inherently evil or bad about rewarding officers for putting in extra effort for a good cause," Diggs said. "I don't want anybody getting a ticket when they shouldn't get one. But I think they were all valid. I don't think anybody is overly inspired by a $10 gift certificate."
In a memo obtained by The Observer, Sgt. Mark Faulkenberry told other officers that the goal of the campaign was to make roads safer.
"I am asking each of you to issue as many citations as possible during that week in an effort to increase visibility, slow down speeders, and keep our streets more safe through traffic enforcement," Faulkenberry wrote. "The highest producer from each shift will receive a gift certificate from Dick's."
But George Laughrun, a local defense attorney, said ticketing should not be a game.
"It goes to credibility," Laughrun said. "I know it's $10, but it's the principle....
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Ticket quotas are supposedly illegal
This stains people.
Yea, but politicians look at it as revenue.
We (I wasn't driving but was in the car with my teenager) recently got caught in a speed trap. A street near our neighborhood, non residential, in fact, non anything except a golf course on one side and woods on the other, has always been 35 mph, then it would change to 25 mph at a certain point. Well, they changed the entire street to 25 mph, and "discreetly" placed the new mph sign.
So around the bend, where you would normally slow to the 25 mph area are 6 police cars, pulling folks over one right after another, because most of the cars, our included were above the 6 mph allowed before they write a ticket.
I was a little miffed that with crime in the city, they'd target cars on a 25 mph non-residential street, and charge them for going 35 mph. Good lesson for my teenager, I guess, that speed traps do exist, so pay extra close attention to all speed signs in case they've just changed the speed limit on a whim.
The ticket was around a hundred bucks and he also had to take a class online to remove points from driver's license etc.
It does not surprise me at all that police men are rewarded for tickets, that's their "bread and butter," unfortunately.
P.S. in the article, the name of the sporting goods stores that they received gift certificates to seems appropriate
Funny!
It wasn't that many years ago that in a case like yours, especially in your home town, the cop would have more likely than not given you a warning as long as you were courteous. And, if there were a ticket issued it was probably about ten or fifteen dollars. Today it's all about raising revenue for the municipality.
Cops fighting real crime don't generate revenue. Cops stopping drivers for minor infractions generates tons of dollars. It's a virtual goldmine.
>Ticket quotas are supposedly illegal<
Not in Tillamook County! I passed a car on a two lane highway, and a cop stopped me for driving "on the wrong side of the road!" And yes, I got a ticket. This was in early evening, late summer. I was convinced that officer had a quota!
B@STARDS!
The older I get, the less I respect the police. For the most part they are bullies left over from high school who hide behind a gun and a badge. I have been caught in a speed trap as well, in New Orleans where we all know how "pure" the police force is there....I got a lawyer and paid nothing....I guess I would rather pay one species of vermin rather than another.
Welcome to Waldo, FL.
I find this rather interesting. When they were widening I-40 through Gboro, the cops would sit on the side of the road with a radar. They would only nab people doing 15 mph over the limit in the construction zone. They said they barely had time to set up before they would catch someone. The average speed over was 25 mph over the speed limit. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
The world is full of idiots.
Another good choice would've been "Target".
In this case it's really the politicians pushing this crap so they have more money to play with.
Some local police departments simply look at this kind of thing as a revenue hunt...lots of them couldn't pay officer salaries without speed traps.
Bingo!
Char-Meck police spend most of their time going after speeders and hookers, and writing up accidents. Don't expect them to spend much effort if someone breaks into your house, or some blacks or hispanics kill each other.
Of course the vast majority of the speeders they pull over are when traffic is very light, and speeding is not much of a safety concern. Traffic is usually so bad that everybody's driving bumper-to-bumper 10 miles below the limit, trying to beat the traffic light they've been sitting at for the last three minutes.
If it shouldn't be against the law--and I believe there are illegal activities that shouldn't be--then the law should be changed, not the LEO.
And I don't want it to seem that I'm criticizing the individual cops, most of whom are probably great guys doing a tough job -- rather the government's marching orders that emphasize traffic cops over homocide detectives and neighborhood patrols.
Why do I get the feeling that the hookers have an easier time talking their way out of trouble? Why do I get another feeling that the hookers might become regular 'collars' for the cops but are never charged?
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