Law enforcement talks hows, whys of traffic stops

Sierra Vista Herald ^ | Terri Jo Neff

[I want the USA back]

And get criminals off the streets so the cops don’t have to be concerned over their safety!

[nonliberal]

Police work for politicians ant their primary responsibility is to generate revenue for the government. There is no law, no matter how immoral or how trivial, that the police will not murder you to enforce.

[mad_as_he$$]

Watch a few episodes of “LivePD”. Instruction video on how not to conduct one’s self when interacting with the popo.

[Menehune56]

I hope you are just being sarcastic my FRiend.

[flamberge]

Traffic stops are mostly a pretext to justify a high-profile felony arrest which will enhance the reputation of the police officer and the department.

Of course most such fishing expeditions come up empty handed. Once in a while they do get a winner.

But then again, there is always the benefit of imposing fines on the population which can help pay the salaries of the police and judges.

And there may also be the ego satisfaction that some officers receive from dominating the submissive and law-abiding population. Even more so from crushing the ineffective resistance of a few malcontents.

"Public Safety" (other than their own) is generally the least of concerns.

It is a system that needs to be keep on a short leash.

[Don W]

[nonliberal]

Um, no. I’m not being sarcastic.

[nonliberal]

I agree with every word of your post.

[cgbg]

This thread needs some humor.

A couple of years ago I was pulled over for rolling through a stop sign.

I was on the way home from the vet, with my chow chow in the back seat.

I stopped and opened the window on the driver side—just a little bit.

(cute) female cop asks: “Is your dog dangerous?”

Me: “Yes.”

Chow Chow (on cue): Tail down, ferocious bark.

Cop: “OK. Well, this is just a warning.”

:-)

[Robert DeLong]

“there is no financial benefit to the city or department for issuing more citations,

Unless they are receiving federal or state grant money for traffic enforcement. I can't state that as a given though I know grant money is often offered up to entice traffic enforcement.

[ThunderSleeps]

I understand that there are a lot of injuries and deaths each year due to traffic accidents. I also understand that speeding, impairment, and distraction are leading causes of traffic accidents. So I get it, your routine "speed trap" can help get people to slow down and maybe reduce injuries and deaths.

That said, some speed traps are just there to generate revenue. LE and their supporters (of which I generally count myself as one) can try to deny it, but I see it with my own eyes. Between where I live and work there is a miles long stretch of nearly uninhabited, straight, county road. The speed limit is only 45. During morning and evening commutes people routinely go 55 or so - some a little more, some a little less. We've all been up and down that road every single work day for years - in some cases this amounts to 7 to 10 thousand trips. We know that road probably better than the back of our hands. Aside from a close encounter with the occasional skunk or prairie dog there's no danger to be found on that road. Yet at least once a month a Sheriff's deputy will be out there writing tickets on some poor guys and gals just trying to get to work, just rolling along with traffic. That's not safety, that's just filling quotas. And no, I've never been ticketed, this isn't sour grapes - just an observation.

[ealgeone]

Police work for politicians ant their primary responsibility is to generate revenue for the government.

I second this motion.

[RandallFlagg]

I must be doing something wrong.
I haven’t been pulled over since I first got licensed to carry almost ten years ago.

[BraveMan]

“there is no financial benefit to the city or department for issuing more citations,”

While this may be a valid claim for the Sierra Vista Area (color me dubious), this is not a valid claim to other parts of the country. In southeastern Wisconsin the revenue generated is in the tens of Millions of dollars. Racine County pays for their police force (and their equipment costs) through speeding ticket revenue. Word to the wise; slow down in Racine County.

Another bootlicker pissing on my boots while telling me its raining . . .

Driving Citation Statistics

[Nifster]

Oh just stop already

[Rio]

“All traffic stops are based on some kind of probable cause,” Randall said, whether it’s a safety concern, a violation or perhaps “their vehicle matches that of a suspect vehicle in a serious incident that just occurred.”

That's a laugh. Out here you get pulled over if you have out-of-state plates just to see what you're up to.
I was on Grand Jury for a while and saw several of these cases come through where they had found drugs being transported by out-of-state vehicles. They would state something lame like "pulled the vehicle over for 'failure to maintain a lane.'"

[Prov1322]

Watch a few episodes of “LivePD”.

Oh yeah! Live*PD is Must See TV here...although delayed to cruise-through by TiVo.

[Teotwawki]

I lived on a road that was dense with houses, lots of families with kids, posted 25 mph. But driving out, there was about three blocks of industrial park, mostly vacant lots after you got by all the houses. Everyone who lived there would observe 25 in the housing but routinely pick it up to 35 in the industrial park.

Then we had a problem with some teenagers speeding through the housing area in the late afternoons, after school let out. Concerned for the children in the neighborhood, we asked the police to do something.

So the police set up a speed trap in the industrial park section, at 7:00 am, and wrote tickets on almost every parent and resident as they headed out to work that day.

Did nothing to address the problem with the teenagers speeding through the neighborhood but we learned to not ask the police for help anymore.

[Keyhopper]

Gee, I hope nobody spills a few bags of cement in the road one night. That might destroy a cars front end alignment.