Posted on 09/24/2013 6:57:08 AM PDT by markomalley
Channel 2 Action News has learned one Gwinnett County police officer has given more tickets for texting and driving than any other officer in the state.
Ch. 2’s Amanda Cook spoke with the officer about how drivers are making it so easy for him to give the tickets.
Gwinnett County Police Officer Jessie Myers said if you do anything on your phone besides make or receive a phone call, he will pull you over. He said the most common place to catch you in the act right at traffic lights.
“I’ve written almost 800 tickets for unlawful communications device this year," Myers said..
Myers expects he'll reach 1,000 tickets by year's end.
"Probably not going to be hard for me to do at the pace I'm on," Myers said.
Myer said he sees most people typing away on their phones while waiting at red lights.
"Most people think they're safe there," Myers said.
However, he said it’s still illegal.
"At a red light, you're still driving. according to the law. You're on a roadway, behind (the wheel of) a car, in charge of it, with a vehicle in drive," Myers said.
Myers said most people don't realize you can't access any Internet or web-based data while driving.
"All applications are web-based to some extent, including navigation," Myers said.
One driver said she was just using her phone's GPS. The law forbids that and Myers issued her a ticket.
"That's right. You can't use your navigation while driving. Unless it is a GPS-only device, such as Garmin or Tom Tom, something that is not used as a communication device," Myers said.
The officer told us a little trick he uses: If he can't see your screen directly, he just counts the number of times you touch your screen.
“If it’s beyond 10, they're not making a phone call," Myers said.
Eight hundred tickets later, Myers hopes some drivers have learned phones are for phone calls only.
"This may stop them from picking up their phone five miles down the road or three days from now,” Myers said.
a couple years ago I would have argued against the cop the necessity for these laws.
Today, the streets have gotten much more dangerous with these selfish people.
If he was on a power trip, he'd be giving tickets to folks who only touched keys ten or fewer times.
Come down here to So Cal where traffic is fast and furious and idiot texters are driving 50 mph on a surface street with stoplights, cross traffic, and pedestrians.
Down here, this cop would be saving fenders, hospital bills, and lives. People who text and drive, in my personal observation MEN (young men) more frequently than women, deserve to have their asses kicked off the road.
The people on power trips are the arrogant morons who wrongly think they're smart enough to read, text with one finger, and drive a vehicle at high speeds all at the same time.
The cop doesn't even have to go that far. He will simply lie in court and the judge, who is also part of the revenue system, will take his word over a citizen every time.
There's some world-class irony there. Law enforcement is supposed to enhance safety, not destroy it, and "most people" covers a lot more than the criminal class whom law enforcement is supposed to be against. Nope, you the common person aren't safe so long as pigs such as Myers are on the prowl.
I don’t get ANY law enforcement today.
I want a society that has SOME law enforcement.
All I get now is Revenuers For The Welfare State who harass innocent citizens attempting to legally go about their day.
Meanwhile, murder, rape, grand theft, drug dealing, vandalism, etc. all go un-enforced and un-punished.
That is my entire experience of “Law Enforcement” over 52 years.
USELESS!
You likely benefit from law enforcement even though you don’t realize it directly. The very presence of a police force in a jurisdiction has SOME effect on the crime rate. You can deny this, but if the police force in your community were immediately disbanded, you would see a significant spike in crime.
Use some common sense, for Pete's sake.
I swear, most of the folks who think this cop's a demon, must live where traffic is mighty s-l-o-w. Either that, or they don't get out much or pay attention when they DO get out.
Completely agree. I don't know how many times I have avoided accidents, by the grace of God, due to some idiot yapping on a phone or texting. That, or been in a long traffic jam in the passing lane because some oblivious phone addict is blocking it.
I’ve reported half a dozen crimes in my life.
Once, my car was stolen. It was eventually returned to me with the THIEF’S WALLET UNDER THE FRONT SEAT. The cops did nothing with that wallet. They did not arrest the man. They returned his wallet and wished him a NICE FRIGGIN’ DAY!
I witnessed a drug deal in front of my house this summer. I got a good description and license plate. THE COPS DID NOTHING.
There was a murder on my bike route to work several weeks ago. The cops have nothing, do nothing, and keep writing tickets.
There was a shooting of a bum by the freeway by a cop. The bum had tried to rush the cop, but missed. Then the bum walked away, across the road. The cop chased him down and shot him when he wasn’t a threat. She’s going to get away with it based on the most recent press reports.
I know a town where the most dangerous gang is THE COPS. They speed, they terrorize, they have all the power, and everyone knows: DO NOT CALL THE COPS.
I can go on for a good hour.
My entire experience is that the cops are the most well organized and powerful gang in town. Do not f*** with them. Do not engage. I have had a dozen interactions over my life with cops, and never, not once, were they enforcing laws against bad guys.
Try blasting the horn while the light's still red. Oh the fun of watching them drive straight into the cross-traffic!
(/joking)
We have car windows shattered every single night in my neighborhood, with items stolen. It has been going on for a decade. Never, not once, have the cops bothered to catch a thief.
My experience exactly. I live in a very rural area; some of my neighbors are Amish, many are farms. No crime out here, and yet I pay taxes for all the townies and city folk to feel “safer”, when all they are really paying for is revenuers who harass people going about thier day. If not for cops, I would open carry everywhere without worrying about getting cited or harrassed and feel a whole lot safer when I venture into the city.
This reminds me of people who get ticketed for flashing their headlights to warn oncoming motorists of a speed trap ahead. Public safety isn’t the goal as the flashing headlights encourage motorists to slow down.
There is a reason law enforcement places motorists under hidden surveillance without probable cause. Revenuers indeed!
Sounds like you have some really BAD cops in your area. But that doesn’t negate the suppression effect that the presence of law enforcement has. Even regarding traffic laws, can you imagine people blowing through red lights at will and driving whatever speed they want because there is NO RISK of paying a consequence?
Never? Not once? That's not believable.
Well, no neighbor has ever heard of a car prowler ever having been caught. Including the dispatch lady who lives a block over.
If the cops were a deterrent, why were two more broken over the weekend?
My lifetime of experience is distilled above. I have no use for the cops. They are a net negative in my experience.
If a cop can't see through your tinted windows, that will get you a ticket all by itself in most states.
I’m glad he’s doing it.
I’m sick of drivers on their mobile devices who are endangering the rest of us.
Again, you need to employ even a little thinking before you make such an asinine statement. I do not deny that the cops in your area are horrible, if it is as you say it is, but NO cops would make it exponentially worse. Denying this shows you have absolutely NO economic sense whatsoever.
Need to have every cop do the same!!
Better yet make smart phones illegal!
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