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Monday, August 10, 2009

Tidbits

Florida Highway Patrolman Fired Because He Didn't Give Out Enough Tickets

An FHP trooper was let go primarily because he didn't meet his ticket quota. I love this validation of what many of us know but police departments deny: Cops do have ticket quotas.

Teenagers are Nature's Form of Birth Control

I've been having problems with Sonosaur lately, and was complaining to my mother. "Oh, we understand," Mom assured me. "One day after a difficult battle with you, your father turned to me and said 'Why didn't we just go bowling on the night she was conceived?!' ...and he hates bowling."

I Will Blog on Wednesday and Friday This Week

My apologies for neglecting you. I've been swamped with work, but it's no excuse when I can write something short and pithy, grab a cup of coffee, and hit the door. I'll be blogging regularly from now on.

5 comments:

Angela said...

Who cares if cops have ticket quotas, there are always plenty of people breaking the law for police officers to give them to.

My husband writes in excess of 60 tickets a month and their "quota" is only 14.

Someone like a State Tooper in our state writes a few hundred tickets a month.

In all actuality it would be nice if they increased the quotas around here, the drivers here are horrendous and dangerous. I would like to see many more of them get tickets.

-Ange

Saur said...

Ange, Are they really all that bad up there?!

I understand your point about ticket quotas, and of course I know that hubby's a cop. But everyone's concern in general is that when there is a quota, there will be cops who will become ticket happy when it's not necessary.

Down here, certain police departments have reputations of being ticket happy as it is - the Largo PD, for instance, which also has a reputation for being crooked (deserved or not? I've seen evidence on both sides).

Angela said...

As an example, I moved here from Dallas, never had a problem with traffic in Dallas. Within three months of moving here I was hit three times, rear ended while at a stop light, side swiped while at a stop light and hit while parked in a parking spot. A few weeks ago there was a 46 car pile up on the interstate here, something I never saw in Dallas with 4 million people, but it happens here with 200 thousand people?

There are communities here that will ticket for anything and SC is an absolute law state, they can pull you over for 1 mile over the speed limit. You just don't speed through those communities...at all!

Otherwise the norm is to be pulled over for anything 12 and over. Failing to yield to blue lights and impeding traffic. Those are all valid reasons to pull someone over and it needs to happen more often here.

The fact remains though, a safe driver that obeys the laws is not going to get pulled over. So if it were me, I would be extra careful in the areas known for being ticket happy and crooked and not worry about it otherwise.

Ange

daveawayfromhome said...

We dont need higher quotas, we need more cops.

Saur said...

Ange, Agreed. ;o)

Dave, Oddly enough, I don't think we need more cops in general. Yes there are areas that do need them - our city of St. Petersburg has a police shortage, for instance and I know this from discussing it directly with some cops I know that work there.

But I know of many cities where there are plenty of cops with a lot of idle time on their hands.

I mentioned Largo's PD before. They are notorious for corruption (recently their chief was suspended for helping cover up a deputy's indiscretions). Too many police with too much time on their hands and high quotas can create something reminiscent of The Old South that is still notorious and terrifying after all these years.

There is a reason that they use the word "police" in Police State.

On the other hand, there are plenty of wonderful cops whose good deeds are tainted by these horrific ones. I know some of these good cops personally. I also know some of these bad cops personally (two are married to acquaintances of mine. One woman justifies her husband's brutality as "masculine" and the other ended up divorcing him).

To sum it up: One bad apple spoils the whole bunch. There are many police departments that seem to spend more time covering up the sins of their own. However, there are also many police departments doing the right thing every day.