Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Got busted for street racing..

Remember his name? Mann,gunan,walker?
I know a few cops in moorsetown that are really cool.I talk to few of them in the gym.You should here some of the stories and the **** I've seen them let go when it's the son of another officer.LOL

Yes, I am going to tell you that revenue generation does not factor, at all, into ticket writing. The city council that I work for contantly harps on us to stay off the highway, stop writing tickets, and stay in town. We still sit on the highway (15 minutes on the hour max), because if we don't people will speed relentlessly and someone will eventually get killed pulling out at an intersection. I give many more verbal warnings each month than I do written citations. Given that, the occasional court expense and car expenses, the city is lucky if they break even on traffic enforcement. Remember, everyone gets their cut of the money, and the funds that come back to the city do not go to the police department, rather it goes into the general fund. Most police departments are like this.

I have never heard of a ticket writing quota, ever. Illinois State Police do have a quota, but it is a contact quota. They are required to have minimum 3 contacts per shift. A contact could be a traffic stop, a motorist assist, etc....

Sure, there are speed traps, but they are not engineered that way. Rather, cops just find good places to hide. It's citizens that get bitter over being caught breaking the law that dub them speed traps.

Sorry, but I just get tired of people saying that cops are rolling revenue generators. If you knew how much money it takes to run a department vs. the fines and fees it generates, you would never say that.

His name is one huge scribble on the ticket, I already tried to figure it out, as a buddy of mine knows some Moorestown cops as well. I'll have to look again and see if it looks like one of the ones you mentioned.

Talk to infuryum...IIRC he got a ticket for that recently and has a suspended license.

If i may say 1 thing....... When i got pulled over by a NYS Trooper he had N/P giving me a ticket even though i had family that was on the
job! I was not a prick either when he started walking over to the car i had my hands out the window so he could see them and still he gave me a ticket for 81 in a 55 (It was a downhill curve) so when i went to court i brought my uncle with me and the trooper knocked it down to a broken speedo because of my uncle being on the job. What i realized is that half the people in the court room ALL HAD BROKEN SPEEDOS? so tell me something is paying a $85.00+$10.00 for court fees an easy way for bringing in revenue for a small town without hurting the people driving through because a broken speedo is no points on the license. I'm not saying its a bad thing because i was wrong 100% but i'll be more than happy to pay a $100.00 fine then get banged out by the insurance co.

And of that $85 - $100 fine, the city might see $15 - $20. Officers are usually paid overtime for court appearances, so you do the math on how much the department makes....

Sandman, you seem like a nice guy who takes pride in his work, so I am going to attempt to keep this from getting personal.

I am not sure where in relation you are to a Chicago or another major city but it sounds like you aren't far from one, and might be on the local level of law enforcement.

In NY we have the State Police, which serve many functions, but one of them that is most important is traffic duty. I don't dislike all cops, in fact I have great respect for the NYPD (even before 9/11) but, you see they have a lot of other things to deal with than speeders. I change my tune when the primary function of a police department seems to be revenue generation.

I am unsure as to where all the money they generate goes. Being that the fines that you pay directly, are to the jurisdiction in which you were caught. Maybe the state police gets a cut then, maybe it just makes its way through the system, I don't know, unfortunately there is nobody on here from the NY state police that could shine some (biased) light on this subject.

I think your doomsday idea of not sitting on the highway is a bit severe. There are roads (some highways, some other) that I have never seen patrolled and others that are patrolled constantly. There doesn't seem to be any general change in the drivers speed patterns go figure :rolleyes:

FWIW, Being involed in a speed contest is a mandatory 6 month revocation of your license in NY. I think if each state starts to crack down and put heavier (sp?) punishment on street racing they will also see a increase in high-speed chases. Just my .02

-Pete

Suspended license for a seatbelt violation???? Or did you not read the thread at all?

Hey Sandman, check out this article, you are not going to believe how many tickets this small town in WV issues. Also, an amusing article for small-town politics, as well.

http://sundaygazettemail.com/news/News/200203301/

It appears some towns can make a fortune issuing citations!

And Cartman, you got off lucky! Around here, you would have been arrested.

Well, there are exceptions to every rule...

If you want to look at the whole picture, think of it this way: Police departments require X $$ to operate per hour. Police departments generate y $$ through traffic fines for a given number of hours of work (less than their total shift). If you look at the total cost of operations during traffic enforcement, and then look at the total funds generated from those hours, you will almost always find that traffic enforcement is one big black hole into which money disappears out of the department.

I stopped a rather affluent older lady sometime last year, and she told me, "Well, I realize that these towns have to get their share of money from honest citizens too..." I just laughed at her. I was still laughing as she pulled away. Some people will never get it. The $105 fine she got (more than 30 MPH over the limit, IL has some of the lowest speeding fines in the US) was nothing to her- she was driving a brand new Cadillac, didn't even have the plates yet. Good thing that we have a 3 moving violations in a rolling 12 month period suspension law in IL. That will get her attention when she can't drive that shiny new car anymore.... lol

EDIT:

"We try to have at least one officer patrolling the highway around the clock. It is a dangerous area. About 25,000 cars come through here every 24 hours. That is 9 million cars during a year."

That was from the article you quoted. So, out of 25,000 cars, the officers are stopping, at most, 84 per day (28 * 3 shifts, 28 comes from the article also). I have no problem with that figure. Hell, if they had more officers, they could likely stop a hell of a lot more cars. All people have to do is follow the law....

Oh, and I have yet to have a month in which I have written 28 tickets. I suspect the majority of officers have similar statistics.