Officer: "Gimme, gimme, gimme!!!"
Posted on 01/13/2010 10:54:48 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
Auburn, NY -- Three days before Christmas, Auburn Police Chief Gary Giannotta laid down the law for his command staff. At the closed meeting Dec. 22 in the department basement, Giannotta gave this ultimatum: Tell your patrol officers to write more vehicle and traffic tickets — at least one each per shift — or there will be repercussions for those who don’t....
Threatening to punish employees who fail to make a ticket quota violates state labor law. Tuesday, the Auburn police union took Giannotta to task for his proclamation, and two college criminal justice experts questioned the ethics of his directive.
(Excerpt) Read more at syracuse.com ...
I don’t like quota’s but I could write at least 1 ticket to work, and another going home. Have you ever seen the idiots out there?
Its all about the money, there is no such thing as public safety anymore.
Criminal Justice is the new term for taxes and tax collection. The department I am a Reserve Deputy with has “performance standards” and they lump everything from tickets, warrants service and field interviews cards into “field contacts”.
This so they can hide the real intent behind the policy, which is you must have 3 “written field contacts” per shift. Which the Sheriff will quickly tell you can be anything from documented warrant service to a field interview card to a traffic ticket. But anyone with a brain knows what path the patrol deputy is gonna take.
He/she is just going to snap up the first three cars they find for whatever violation they can find and write them and this is not just my speculation either, I watch it happen everytime I work a detail or help pull a shift.
Civic cannibalism.
But I always appreciate it when public officials take off the mask and show us what they’re really about. It clarifies the relationship between government and citizen.
From “to protect and serve” to “to tax and spend” in less than a century.
how about shooting one murderer on parole per week?
You are damn right it is, and I have been arguing this point for years. Many people told me I was crazy to believe this, but this article is vindication afterall. Same beliefs apply to those damn "radar-red-light" scameras that are all over the intersections these days.
Once upon a time, it was.... "I am a shield."
Ha!
More like...
"I am a cashier, so pay up before I beat your @ss."
What a joke the police have become.
Quotas are prohibited by statute in Texas - criminal penalties for police chiefs/city administrators who try to set quotas. I get a little tired of hearing, “tickets are just a revenue generator for the city”. Even if you think that, if the prosecutor can’t prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt, you get acquitted.
Colonel, USAFR
Municipal Court Judge
City Prosecutor
One short stretch of state highway I travel is unincorporated by 2 neighboring cities. You can see police from both cities, parish sheriff’s patrol and state police out there shooting radar. I wonder if they’ve worked out a schedule as to who is entitled to revenue from what days. There’s also road construction going on right now so you know what that means for fines if caught speeding in a construction zone.
The easy fix to this sort of problem is to make sure the fines go to a different agency than the police force...and one that can’t give kickbacks for the ticket quota as well.
Officer: "Gimme, gimme, gimme!!!"
The police don’t engender good feelings around here. They patrol very heavily on Sunday and late at night when there is very little traffic.
We live off a pretty quite road and I took a movie back to the store at 9:30 last night. I passed two patrol cars who had pulled people over on the way to the store (about a mile away); another car had been pulled over on my way home. You can’t tell me that they’re protecting the public when they’re pulling people over when most people are at home, in bed, and not on the road.
Where are they during rush hour when people are more likely to be driving dangerously? They are no where to be found because they’d actually have to do work.
I should add, my new motto for police is “To collect (taxes) and to serve (citations).”
My best friend growing up is a State Trooper. His department can’t have “quotas”, but the station policy is that they must write tickets for 55% of the stops that they make. Every month he gets called in by his superior to explain why he didn’t make the 55%. My friend tells the sup that 1) “I listen to what people tell me. If they’re dangerous or lying, they get a ticket. If they’re honest, I let them go. and 2) I focus on drunk drivers. My arrests for drunk driving are way above the dept. average. I’m getting the dangerous people.”
It just proves that they value revenue more than protecting the public.
Hey, the union says they are entitled to a Donut break now and then.
I know Auburn well, my wife’s hometown. They, like most of non-NYC NY are running out of ways to squeeze more money out of the populance to fund everybodies rights. The unions and taxes have pretty much chased away any new sustainable development for the last 50-years so they are at the vulture stage of community revenue growth. It is very depressing to go there. I try to avoid it. It is a boneyard of another generations success. One thing never changes, the voting patterns that got them there. Only one way out and that is to leave. We could call it the Detroit model of economic development.
Are you serious? I bet his opportunities to get a promotion are not as high as the rest of his colleagues simply because he isn't cashing in on every single motorist he stops?
I agree with your assessment about cashing in on the public rather than protecting us.
On New Years Eve, my wife got a ticket for an illegal left turn. When the cop pulled her over, he went on and on about how unsafe her act was.
The “no left turn” sign was covered by another sign, the island she went through was opened, the solid lines that should designate a “no cross” area were worn off, and the barriers were broken down so that only their base was left and they couldn't be seen at night.
If there was such a risk of a wreck (a “t-bone” as the cop called it), why was the cop (and another, who bagged someone too) sitting in a dark parking lot with his lights off WAITING FOR IT TO HAPPEN? Why weren’t the broken barriers replaced? Why wasn’t the road repainted? Why was the sign directly behind another?
That may be true, but I'll bet that it happens in some places in Texas just the same.
I get a little tired of hearing, “tickets are just a revenue generator for the city”.
They are and police chiefs and city administrators know this. They certainly know it in Auburn NY. If it happened less, you might hear it less.
Even if you think that, if the prosecutor can’t prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt, you get acquitted.
True. That doesn't mean you actually broke the law. Also, it may be cheaper to mail a check than to go back and fight it. That is why out of state plates are targeted for revenue enhancement.
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