Seriously, fight every ticket...

[rohan]

Not all- I work for a sheriff department and we have interstate and state roads (considered primary roads)running through our county and we patrol them both along with also patrolling the very small villages and bigger cities here who have their own departments as well.  If it's in the county we patrol it.

[James Young]

bing_oh writes:

{Well, I currently work for a department with just 16 sworn officer (including the admin, detective, and special assignments) in a city of about 12,000 people.}

Stringtown, Oklahoma at one time had (IIRC) 14 officers for a village of 396 people (2000 census).  They have no detective division; in fact, they have no criminal investigation division.  All criminal calls and civil work such as serving subpoenas and warrants are handled by the Atoka County sheriff.   They had 14 officers, several of whom were not high school graduates according to the Tulsa World, locals who were essentially deputized to write traffic citations.  They do not respond to calls except as curiosity calls.  Since there are no stop lights, perhaps 3-4 stop signs, and no reason to even get off the highway, we can only surmise that the only violation is speeding.

[bing_oh]

Ok, the whole point of bringing up where this pressure may or may not come from was in response to your post that people fighting traffic tickets are somehow adding unnecessary burden to the court system, leading to backlogs.

If speeding tickets are in fact contributing to backlogs in the courts, the solution to that problem is obvious - reduce the number of traffic citations.  Don't blame people who recieve tickets for exercising our right to take it to court.  When I get a ticket, I hire a lawyer because I'd rather pay the extra $75 and not get the points on my record.  I plan to continue to do this in the future.  If my local government has a problem with this they are more than welcome to solve that problem by not giving me any more tickets.  Until then, I'm going to hire a lawyer for each one of them.

The whole "pressure" sidebar only came along because I recognize the fact that this is a decision that needs to be made at a higher level up than the individual officer.

You have every right to dispute a traffic citation in court.

It's my personal opinion (not professional opinion...this is civilian Bing talking), however, that it's a waste of the court's time when people fight charges that they know they're guilty of. I think it shows a lack of personal responsability for ones actions, a trend that I believe is one of the biggest problems in our nation. I see it alot in adults but see it even more being taught to our children. We're raising a generation of kids many of whom don't understand personal responsability because their parents never taught it to them. I know that's a much bigger issue than what we're discussing here, but I think what we're discussing is a biproduct of that thinking.

[James Young]

We agree, it IS a larger issue.  However, I do not consider fighting charges of violating a stupid rule to be irresponsible but the highest calling of a citizen, to correct wrongs within the system.

Correct the law before you attempt to correct the behavior because anything less is just another government lie.

[TBR]

I have been pulled over 4 times, all by local PDs. The first time was for suspicious behavior. The second time was for speeding. The third time was for following too close (idiot in the left lane slammed on his brakes as soon as he saw the cop). The fourth time was for a burned out headlight.

Only one of these was speed related (and, all incidents occurred in small towns) so I really think that the idea that small town cops look for speeders in particular might be a little faulty. I will note that it is very well known that the PD that I got my ticket in (the speeding one, didn't get one for the other incidents) doesn't report tickets to the state unless they aren't paid (therefore, the state doesn't get their cut and the driver doesn't get points). Now tell me that that department isn't interested in the revenue (I also had a damn good excuse, if any road should have a 65/70 mph speed limit it was that one).