Posted on 09/20/2009 10:14:25 PM PDT by george76
Bangor Police Chief Ron Gastia ... “It nonetheless remains necessary to increase the parking revenue and address the limited enforcement of on-street parking.”
In that memo, which was leaked to the Bangor Daily News earlier this week, he announced the enactment of a new quota system demanding that patrol officers write a minimum of 10 parking tickets per month. He has since reduced the quota to five tickets a month.
Gastia had not intended that internal memo to get into the hands of the public or the media, and when I spoke with him Friday he was clearly not happy that it did.
Police seeking to increase revenue is always a bit disconcerting, and police officers who have quotas are, as well.
It has something to do with the power they wield. You know. The whole badge and gun thing along with the power to take one’s freedom away.
The parking ticket quota is not the first that Gastia has implemented since he took over as chief upon the retirement of Don Winslow.
A year or so ago he issued another quota that patrol officers make at least 20 traffic stops per month, he said.
Quotas and cops have been a long-debated issue not just in this country, but around the globe. Some states have outlawed such quotas. Maine has not.
(Excerpt) Read more at bangordailynews.com ...
Police who wonder why the public don't respect them any more need to understand this.
Maybe they just need to install a roulette wheel in cop cars that have dollar amounts on them.
The cop pulls you over, spins the wheel and whatever number comes up, that is your fine. Sort of like wheel of fortune.
This is bad policy. I gives an appearance of impropriety.
Question: If everyone were to obey the law, then how would a ticket quota be just?
Then they would just pull you over and give a ticket anyway. Make you show up in court or just pay the fine.
That would be just one reason.
Look, every time I drive the freeway some off duty cop flys by at 10 miles over the limit.
They can, they are cops.
Ya see that and the line is, donuts must be ready.
And that is only one thing that leads to a breakdown in trust.
If they can't get you on a flagrant violation, they will go after trivial violations or even non-violations. Cops have an arsenal of "offenses" that they can cite you for like "careless driving", "failure to yield", and minor "safety related" problems with your vehicle itself. Of course, in most cases, it comes down to the citizen's word vs. the cop's word, in which case the cop almost always wins. Most people don't bother to fight the ticket. If the cop is forced to write tickets, he will always find someone to ticket.
It would be just like in Manhattan where they had (still have) police writing parking tickets with license plate numbers they observe driving by and just throw away the copies that are supposed to be on the car.
Hmmm. I guess I'm lucky then. I was once leaving a nightclub where I had been playing music. As I drove down the highway, some a-hole pulled up to within probably eight feet of my rear bumper at 65 mph. No one anywhere around, so I put on my blinker and pulled into the next left lane as there was an exit coming up. I figured the A-H was going to exit the highway.
Nope.
He swung over behind me, still extremely close. I thought I had a drunk A-H behind me. I blinkered and moved back into the right lane. At this point, he swerved back behind me and threw on his flashing lights.
I had to do a twenty minute drunk test on the side of the highway with a highly agitated and pissed of police officer. I was totally sober. He said I was "swerving" on the highway. Complete BS, but I didn't get a ticket. He was swerving and driving in an unsafe manner. I felt like my safety was in danger, and at 65 mph, my life was at risk.
Why can't I ticket him? What an Obama he was.
Same thing happened to me once but instead of swerving - I was on a one lane road and NOT breaking any laws - I sped up to lose the idiot who was tailgating me.
Oops. Red lights and siren.
Speeding Ticket for accelerating away from him.
Jerk.
You WERE lucky. A DUI, being a far more serious offense than the ordinary “5-over” ticket, and one would have to be resolved in court, requires a higher standard of documentation than the cop’s word that he clocked you at a given speed.
But you raise an important point. Cops can and do engage in entrapment strategies like what you described. By tailgating you, the cop was trying to force you into a ticketable situation.
It your case, it probably wasn’t a cop needing to fill a quota, it was a cop on a power trip with a need of a different sort.
Ticket quotas?
I got a radar speeding ticket last week for 34 MPH in a 30 MPS zone.
Anyone think that was quota inspired?
You couldn’t pay the CHP to be on the 14 S. in So.Cal for quite a while. Now that the state is bankrupt, you can’t get away from them. They’re crawling all over the place like ants.
“Safety Enforcement” zones (aka speed traps) almost daily in the AV.
Public safety my A$$!!
Badged Revenooers is all they are.
SZ
Yep. Revenue Enhancement is in full swing these days.
If a P.D. did NOT have a “quota”, 95% of the cops wouldn’t give out a ticket. I call it a “minimum standard of performance”. Additionally, some cops would never make an arrest (go to school, side jobs, etc,)
I live on a “Busy” street, bottom of a long hill. Cops love to park in the culdesack across the street and stand int he bushes with radar guns. Other cars are pulling over the speeders just a block down. Later, I see those same cops just flying down the hill, no lights, off duty, etc. they know when the speed traps will be running...
One night, I accelerated on the entrance ramp to merge into the highway traffic. A white car pulls alongside me (on the left) and then slows to match my speed. I ease off the gas so this car can move ahead and not have me boxed in; the car slows down as well. So I accelerate a bit and the other car also accelerates. After a couple of iterations, I stomp the gas to get ahead of this guy as my left exit is coming up. Sure enough, it was an unmarked car and he throws his lights on and pulls me over.
When he asks what I was doing, I explained that he was pacing me and that I needed to get over to the left lane so I could exit the highway and he wasn't letting me. He ends up giving me a warning about "driving aggressively." A$$hole; if he hadn't been pacing me there would have been no rapid acceleration on my part.
Seems if ya want respect you earn it. And that is not by setting a poor example.
Cause the donuts are hot or what ever,
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