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 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.