do you guys notice Police activity rises at the end of the month?

[Mr_RPM]

In my area Police are out and about and very busy at the ends of the month.
I live in a semi small town and saw 8 cops today (usually see 2-3 a week unless going to a bigger city or something) and was with a friend when she got a ticket for avoiding a traffic light. (cutting threw a strip mall)
police radaring in an area I never see them, it was nuts today

People always joke about quotas and stuff, but it makes me wonder, is it true?

Theres just those days at the ends of the month where my visual on police activity raises ALOT. coincidence right?

[playasridebmx]

of course the quota stuff is true they wouldnt give so many tickets if it wasnt

[Chazz of Blades]

I don't know about your areas, but I have plenty of family in law enforcement, and I've asked about a quota system, and in Alabama there is NO SUCH THING.


Police officers get paid to protect life and property, and maintain public safety and order. part of doing those things is enforcing traffic laws. Guys on patrol have to do something with their time, that is constructive. Do you want to pay for a cop to sit on his fat *** and do nothing all day long? Of course not. That means that they look for trouble and suspicious people, they enforce traffic laws, they keep an eye on businesses or other places at risk, and thus they earn their money. Traffic enforcement is quantifiable, so police supervisors use the numbers of tickets (or warnings) written to judge an officers activity level. There is no way to measure the number of crimes an officer "prevented" while on patrol. they also count arrests, and ped stops and lots of other quantifiable things, but that does no make it a "quota".

[Mr_RPM]

I agree, I know many who have family in law enforcement and say there is no such thing as quotas, its just soo weird to see activity (though this is just first hand, My area does differ by day so I cant say for sure) jump SOOO much in 1-2 days then there are back to normal.

[Chazz of Blades]

Of course, there are bad apples in every department, but there could be a thousand good, honorable officers, and one trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotr ailpro who uses his badge as a weapon to satisfy his sociopathic side, and then the thousand good officers get labeled as pigs.


State Troopers on the other hand...........

Well, there was two people around here killed by a state trooper last week, he was doing about a eighty down a two lane road, heading to a collision, not a bad one, just to be the officer on the scene, veered into the oncoming lane in a curve, and hit a car head on. He was fine surprisingly, but the young couple in the car were killed. I'm definantly not saying all troopers are mean sonsabitches, but I've yet to meet a nice state trooper.

[Mr_RPM]

haha, most state boys have been pretty easy on me. back in the younger days when we were riding on the dirt roads alot, sheriffs would get us in trouble, but the state cops would come out and talk to us and tell us to stay off the roads, one even said to stay off to the side going 5-10MPH with helmets if we had to in order to get to neighbors riding land.

city cops, all jerks. yet to meet a nice one.

anyway, not talking about them being nice or not, they are all doing their job, its just I see alot more and alot more being busy on some days, almost always on the last of the month.

[250x]

I cannot speak for other places, but here the last 2-3 days of a month and first 2-3 days the scanner buzzes insanely. I swear in a 2 hour period you can hear 50 calls come through for traffic stops. Then of course the judge is more than willing to reduce your moving violation down to a parking ticket that costs you a nice 250.00 fine, whether it was for rolling a stop sign, or the infamous one here in attica, "your headlights are inadequate" revenue builder. They have used this ploy on more than 80% of the village and have harassed them to no limit over the past 14 months. The village has a petition in circulation now to remove the local police department and let the Wyo Co Sherriff's have an office here. Their public records do include a prtion for earned revenue......what happen to protect and serve? its pull over and serve a ticket.

For the record, I have gotten 17 head light tickets in the past 12-13 months from them for my stock pontiac grand am lights not being adequate in the village of attica, but when taken directly to a dealer to have checked, they were operating 100% and DOT legal, AND they are factory white headlights. I have been given 9 tickets for loud exhaust. My car has no exhaust leak, no aftermarket muffler, its all stock, and whisper quit as most pontiacs are. I have had to pay over 3500.00 in revenue in bullshit fines this past year. I think they met their damn quota!!

[250x]

for the record, my grand am is not 25 years old, its a 2004 grand am sedan with 62,000 miles on it, not a spot of rust.

[Chazz of Blades]

Huh, sounds to me like they fit the whole "badge-based badass brigade" bill, I hope yall can straighten em out!

[Howdy]

Actually seen / heard this on a cop show once. Towards the end of the month the Welfare is running out so people try to find other income. The police patrol more to stop some of this from happening.

[tri again]

Does activity increase end of the month OR full moon.
I know the er does.

We had a festival traffic jam here last year, cars lined up to get into the venue along the side of the road.
Very respectful group of about 300 cars.

Walking back to the barn I saw a big triangle sign.
Since it was on the blind corner, I figured it was a caution or congestion or
slow down sign.

NOPE!
It was a 'construction zone' sign.

ok
1
2
3
the correct answer is!!!!!

fines double in construction zones.
300 cars times 350$ =
ez $ shootin' fish in a barrel.

safety first

[bkm]

I know of a department that doesn't have a "hard" quota per say, but they are "encouraged" to write X amount of tickets per month. This is 100% fact with this department.

[Mr_RPM]

I know of a department that doesn't have a "hard" quota per say, but they are "encouraged" to write X amount of tickets per month. This is 100% fact with this department.

Im guessing its something like that, theres no way they should expect X amount of tickets per month, but having a good goal set is probably something they use to keep em workin.

[Ironbnder]

The policies within a department is totally up to the Sherriff or Chief. Two neighboring towns or counties may be ran completely different. So there is no yes or no to a quota system. It is up to the man in charge and his beliefs of how it should be ran.

Public complaints, dangerous intersections and election time for their positions do have alot to do with traffic stops in an area or particular time frame.

[bkm]

^^^ This. Remember the squeaky wheel always gets the grease when it comes to the command staff. If a citizen calls and complains that a certain part of town is being neglected as far as enforcement goes. Well then the boss man saturates a certain area to get that person off his back.

[HuffieVA]

Whether or not their are "Quota's" is arguable, one thing that is not arguable is that many careers are based on performance on the job, police are no different, and as (for some) the feeling of "helping people and the community" begins to fade their sights get set on recognition, some are smart enough to set their sights on the solving of crimes that effect the community (i.e. hard drugs, burglaries, murder, rape, etc.) while others just aren't smart enough to take on those challenges, leaving the "only" option for promotion being getting the "High Score" when it comes to traffic infractions, so remember that poor officer writing you a ticket for two mph over the limit is really just a "Special Needs Officer" he likely cant make it up the ladder using his brains, so he attempts to do it at your expense:D

[dcreel]

I have asked my father about this on several occasions. He was a police officer for over 30 years in California and Kansas, and chief of Sedan, KS police dept. for 5 years. He has always said there isn't a quota, but if you are driving around as a patrol officer for 8 hours and writing 5 tickets you will be asked why. The other thing is if there are 2 officers doing patrol and 1 writes 15 tickets in a day, and the other writes 5 there will be hurt feelings and you can imagine who would go up in the world. Tickets mean revenue, it's a fact of life. I've gotten a lot of tickets, and I've only gotten 1 I didn't deserve and that was in the Fatherland of Illinois on I-80. We even had a cb chat about it afterward about how he tried to offer me a radar detector violation, then when I argued that suddenly I was doing 70 in a 55.. in a truck geared to do 65 in 12th gear. Obviously a bad cop.

When my dad joined the Sedan, PD as the chief they had 1 car. A really old Topaz he could barely fit into. 2 years later through writing tickets he had 2 used Crown Vics. The Chief before him apparently didn't care if they wrote tickets or not. There was a general rule that certain people didn't get tickets. My dad threw all of that out the window and wrote tickets to whoever broke the law. Needless to say the city of Sedan hated him... because now they had a cop who was doing his job. Sedan is mostly owned by Bill Kurtis from A&E fame. My dad ticketed some buses with tourists who parked illegally and that made everyone mad. About how Sedan being a tourist trap was more important then the law. After death threats and having his mailbox blown up, nails in his driveway he said "f**k 'em" and stepped down. The mess they are in now is real bad. The new chief has been in court twice for domestic violence. He has been "dating" an underage girl. But no tickets are written and there is zero police presence. So the populace now bitches about how the new chief is never around.

You can please some of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time. The people in town who have nothing to hide are still good friends with my father, and have nothing but praise for how he turned the town around.

Being a police officer is a thankless job. Most people hate you until they need you, and then you took to long getting there.

[skippy]

As a retired police.. most of your are correct. NO quota's.. but you have to show productivity.... So are actively patrolling? Then you will see crime=traffic violations. Or are you answering calls for service? What are you doing with your time? You must show something. As a previous patrol officer, then a gun detective, how did I get "promoted to a detective"? Work ethic. I didnt sit around and drink coffee and eat donuts all day. I did something. Just like most of your at your jobs, you have to show you are doing something. If at the end of the month, when your stats are compiled, if you have been doing nothing, your boss will call you in. CRIME is everywhere! When I worked in Baltimore, even with all of the crime, we still had time for traffic enforcement. So ALL officers should have time for traffic enforcement. If you need more info PM me.

[ironchop]

^^^^ wow Doug ....yer dad was an officer with true integrity....a rarity in this day and age....I would accept a ticket from that man any day....those who show no personal integrity can shove their ticket up their hole as well as their "enforcement of the law"....they need more officers like your dad was, Doug.....it`s also too bad that the bad apples make the good officers look bad

Skippy....Baltimore, huh?......Been there.......it was rough in the early to mid 90`s in some parts of town so you definitely had your work cutout for you

I haven`t liked some officers but more due to their personality than the fact that they pulled me over....I hate when they expect me to be honest and then lie to me (long story) but I will say this....everybody has a boss, officers included and we can be mad at the patrolman all we want but truth is, somewhere, there is a boss encouraging him to "increase revenue" and he is merely doing his job to the best of his abilities given the situation.....If you want the revenuers off your back, vote them out....it isn`t the patrolmen`s fault really it`s those who employ them

[HuffieVA]

I meant no offense by my "Special Needs" officer comment, but let me give you an example:

I sat in traffic court in Surry, Virginia for doing 38 in a 35 coming into town... While sitting there awaiting my turn at justice, a guy was called for his chance to "explain" his side of the story, he had been arrested for passing two abreast, now as most people know "breasts" are generally along side one another and passing two abreast in the same lane means just that.... Fairly self explanatory right? The problem is that two abreast (even motorcycles in Virginia) is considered reckless driving. On top of that the "Special Needs" officer thinks that two abreast is passing two cars that are in the same lane (one in front of the other) while he was in the other lane, you could hear very audible snickers from those sitting in the courtroom as the officer drew the scenario out on the chalkboard and the DA pushed for the maximum... while the judge politely explained that it was apparent that neither of the two actually knew what "Two Abreast" was and subsequently through the charges out, yet this "Special Needs" officer is free to go on writing tickets for things he obviously doesn't even understand the meaning of. I really think that if there was a minimum IQ or regularly scheduled follow up competency tests especially in smaller rural communities when the revenue from traffic violations is greatly depended upon crap like this could be kept to a minimum and maybe just maybe the good well meaning small town cops wouldn't get such a bad rap... It's not any different than a band of idiots tearing up someones field or riding drunk getting seriously hurt and making the papers, making three wheelers look bad... The "Special Needs" officers do the same thing to the good officers (make them look bad). Hey, if I'm flying down the road threading traffic I deserve a ticket, and I wont complain if I get one (for the record I cant stand the idiots that do that) but if your gonna write me a ticket for something that you don't even know what the hell the meaning of it is, maybe, just maybe you should look for another line of work...

[dcreel]

With what I have said I have definitely seen both sides.. As a Punk in Orange County California in the 80's I have had a fat cop drop a knee in my back while laying on the ground prone.. Because he had to run after me.. :lol:

I've seen a lot of bad cops and a lot of good cops.. It's an extremely hard job wondering if the car you just pulled over is the one that is going to shoot you in the face as you walk up to the drivers side of the car. Now imagine that feeling several times a day.

Back in the 80's where my dad worked a fellow cop shot a young kid in a darkened apartment. All he saw was the relection of the kid with a gun (play) in his hand. He shot and hit the kid in the neck. He tried to keep him alive, and it didn't work. The mother locked the 8 or 9 year old kid in the apartment and had been gone for over a day. The dad was in prison. They both won a settlement against the city. She was a bad mother, and he was in prison at the time.

His life is ruined. The point I am trying to make is that it's a life or death job. Most of the police man jobs around here top out around $18/hour. What kind of cop do you think they are hiring when they start at $13/hour.

It's like teachers.. NBA stars make millions while the teachers who actually help shape our kids minds make little money..

[HuffieVA]

Doug, I agree 100% with the pay scale not drawing quality with both officers and teachers...

My daughter who is a junior in high school rides the bus home with her boyfriend on Wednesdays to go to the youth club at his church, I'm not very religious myself but he is a really good kid and they seem to enjoy it so she goes every week. Anyway trying to explain this to the teacher appointed to making sure the kids get on the right buses is nearly impossible... the lady barely speaks English, every week it has been the same thing, they call accusing my daughter of faking the note, I went as far as calling the principal and telling him that she has my permission to ride the dam bus whenever she wants but still every week I get a broken English call from the bus lady, finally last week I figured "If you cant beat em, join em" and put it in a language that she could understand... Here's the note:

http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc461/HuffieVA/electranote.jpg

And for the first time in months, I didn't get that annoying call accusing her of writing her own note...

I honestly think if they raised the bar on teachers and officers, doubled their salary and cut the number of both in half we would all be much better off...

Sorry for going off topic a bit but GOOD teachers and officers make this country a better place, unfortunately in recent years we have taken to belief that "More is better" rather than the "Quality" of people we fill those positions with...

[dcreel]

Too funny.. I agree with you as well. I'm not happy with the school raising my children.. But I would be happier if the teacher at the least wanted to teach children. I'm also going to teach my kids if they are bullied to take it to knuckles if you know what I mean.. I'll deal with where the pieces fall.. :lol: