Originally posted by MarkO -- Ireland for the World Cup:
Originally posted by Sandman333:
[b]2 over is ridiculous, the judge would laugh me out of court. I generally don't write anything less than 10 over on the highway, 5 in town.
Yet.....tack a couple more on to 75mph and ??. Do you ticket for the difference between 75mph and what the person was doing or is the ticket for the full amount ?? If you generally don't ticket for 10 over, I honestly think it's a little unfair to ticket someone for 15 over.
It is this inconsistency that really frustrates me.
And no, I'm not bitter about my last ticket, just very annoyed at myself for getting caught as I had seen troopers in that spot 2 or 3 times the previous week.
Regards.....[/b]Here we enter the relm of officer discretion. Without it, I would be required to stop and ticket every single violation I see. I wouldn't be happy, and neither would the public. I've let people go with a verbal warning who were doing 15+ over, and ticketed those who were only doing 8 over (highway). Why? Because after a while you get to be a pretty good judge of just how a traffic stop affects a person, and whether it would be more effective to warn or write, as far as changing their driving habits. Some people will not change their habits no matter what, and so I write them. Eventually, they will get enough tickets that their license will be suspended, and so their driving habits will change whether they want them to or not. At least in IL, we arrest for DWR/DWS.
Why won't I even stop someone for 2 over? The margin of error in your speedometer at highway speeds is likely greater than that. Given that, what's the point of stopping them? At 10 over, you are easily aware that you are exceeding the limit, even without paying close attention to your speedometer, and thus you have no excuse. Same goes for 5 over in town.
