Less Than $2.3k To Go!!
Just A Reminder
Please Don't Forget
To Donate To FR
Posted on 05/16/2011 8:52:18 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Rosemary Smith saw the motorcycle cop's flashing lights behind her, and her eyes immediately started to well up.
She was going 17 mph over the speed limit and faced a $256 fine, the officer told her after she pulled into a parking lot off Fourth Street N.
As she fought back tears, her life story spilled out. She was a full-time college student, her only income from part-time work as a bank teller. She had a wedding coming up in November.
"I've got house bills to pay," said Smith, 21, visibly shaken as she clutched the wheel of her blue Saturn. "I'm freaking out."
Motorists complaining about tickets is nothing new for traffic cops. But officers say they are sensing growing distress.
"A day doesn't go by when I don't see someone cry," said Officer Mauricio Steffek. "They can't believe how much the ticket costs. They'll tell me, 'Give me a break. I don't have a job now. I'm falling behind the mortgage or car payments.' "
Once a minor, if stressful, inconvenience, the everyday traffic citation is becoming a life altering breaking point for many.
And more and more, drivers aren't paying them — creating a ripple effect in city and county budgets across Tampa Bay.
In St. Petersburg, the money collected from traffic tickets has dropped from $681,000 in 2008 to $494,214 in 2010. It's projected to dwindle even further this year — despite the fact that police handed out 1,500 more tickets last year than they did in 2008.
"It's a drastic drop that means we have to find revenue from other places," said Tim Finch, St. Petersburg's director of budget and management. "It makes it tougher on other departments."
Pinellas County has seen its ticket revenue fall by $700,000 in two years. In Tampa, police estimate they will bring in $900,000 less than they did in 2008. In Hillsborough, fine collections are down nearly $3 million since 2008.
"It's directly related to the economy," said Hillsborough Clerk of Courts Pat Frank. "People are being more cautious because they can't afford it. And police officers are more reluctant to give out tickets when the fines are more costly."
In recent years, Florida's tax adverse politicians have raised fees to generate new revenue. Traffic law-flouting motorists are a tempting target because they don't garner public sympathy.
State lawmakers in 2009 approved new measures to produce more than $63 million, all from the pockets of wayward motorists. Included: a new $10 charge on all traffic infractions, cutting an 18 percent discount for attending traffic school, and a $25 increase for exceeding the speed limit by 15 to 29 mph.
Local governments tack on more charges. In Pinellas County, for instance, each citation can get assessed an extra $30 for court costs; $3 for driver education safety programs; $3 for teen court; and $2 to pay for public safety applicant screenings.
Tickets range from $62 for a bicycle infraction to $456 for traveling 20 to 29 mph over the limit in a school or construction zone. If a driver is hit with multiple violations, such as speeding, not wearing a seat belt and having an expired tag, fines can climb to nearly $700.
In times like these, a ticket can be a severe blow to those living paycheck to paycheck.
Officers have the discretion to waive the ticket if they think the driver would be better served with a warning. Traffic cops like to say it's about public safety, not the money.
On a recent Tuesday morning, Steffek listened to Smith's tale of woe. He called up her driving history. Clean. He decided to waive the fine.
"It would have been hard for me to pay," said Smith, grateful and smiling.
As she drove away, Steffek said he had imagined himself in her predicament.
"She was shaking really bad," he said. "She was scared."
• • •
Pain felt by drivers is so evident their biggest supporters are often the cops who stop them.
"Our deputies feel that because of the way the economy is, they give out a lot more warnings," said Detective Larry McKinnon, Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman.
Same with Pinellas.
"We're very aware of some of the cost," said spokeswoman Marianne Pasha. "If there is an opportunity to write a warning, rather than write a citation, that's what we'll do."
In many cases, deputies won't write multiple citations like they did in the past. If someone with a clean driving record is caught speeding without wearing a seat belt, McKinnon said, they'll be cited for a seat belt violation.
"We're more tolerant," he said. "People have lost their jobs and are struggling. A lot of times you'll see families in the car. How do you write someone a $700 ticket when they have a carload of kids?"
Empathy comes with a price.
Pinellas is on track to write 2,000 fewer tickets than it did two years ago. Hillsborough tickets dropped by 40,000 from 2008 to 2010. Not all of that stemmed from deputies waiving tickets, McKinnon said.
The other reason also is economic: There are fewer deputies out there writing tickets.
In St. Petersburg, police are handing out more tickets than ever, but fewer people are paying, said Lt. William Korinek, who oversees traffic enforcement.
"People are saying that the tickets are too expensive," Korinek said. "For the most part, they're not criminals. They're people like you and me, average people going about their day. "
On a recent Tuesday, Chris Robinson, a retired 64-year-old, was running errands when he was stopped for speeding.
He was going 48 mph in a 35 mph zone. The fine: $206.
"I can't pay it," Robinson said as his shoulders sagged and he cradled his face in his hand. "I'm on a fixed income. It's going to kill me."
Fined drivers can pay the full sum within 30 days, or spread the fine out in six monthly installments.
An increasingly popular option: People can work off the debt with community service.
"Economic conditions are driving that," said Hazel Bure, director of the court and operational services at the Pinellas County Clerk of Court. "The traffic fines are very high."
Drivers calculate the hours they need to work for a nonprofit by dividing the fine by the $7.25 hourly minimum wage. A $206 fine would be almost 29 hours. The fine isn't waived until the courts get a verification letter from the nonprofit.
The option is a boon to groups like Habitat for Humanity. Since 2008, the nonprofit has seen the number of people volunteering to pay off tickets double to about 12 a week, said Kevin Klucas, the group's volunteer coordinator.
"It works well for us, and hopefully becomes a good experience for them, too," Klucas said.
While some turn the experience into a productive one, officials say others let a ticket disrupt their lives. If a fine isn't paid, a motorist's driver's license is suspended, a misdemeanor that can mean going to jail. The state doesn't track the number of suspended licenses, but some law enforcement officers say there has been a rise.
A look at Pinellas County jail records show that more than 7,000 people were processed for that charge since 2005.
The majority of those were people arrested on the charge for the second or third time.
• • •
During rush hour last week, Steffek and fellow St. Petersburg Officer Chris Dort stopped more than a dozen drivers in two hours. Nearly everyone fretted about the fine.
"I work hard and make just enough to pay my bills," said Bob Samples, a 47-year-old restaurant worker facing a $206 speeding ticket. John Zurek was looking at $256 for going 17 mph over the limit. A 20-year-old St. Petersburg College student who recently quit his job at a sandwich shop, Zurek said he didn't know where he'd get the money.
Whatever strain motorists are feeling, it may only get worse.
St. Petersburg officials are installing red light cameras to catch offenders and will likely start handing out $158 tickets this summer. Hillsborough County already does. Tampa soon will.
"I feel bad for some of these drivers," Dort said. "People are busy. They're running around, trying to make ends meet. It's real rough out there."
Sucks to watch people who claim they are defenders of liberty falling all over themselves to excuse this also. (not you, obviously)
Where am I going wrong?
I agree with your comments. There are limits to what people should be expected to put up with. In general, people should abide by the traffic laws. If you’re traveling during rush hour and traffic is moving above the posted speed limit, it would cause a dangerous situation for you to slow down and impede traffic.
One can start a movement to get the city council to make changes to local speed or traffic related laws, if the police are out of line. I would support such an effort.
One of the hardest lessons in life, is the lesson that tells us that not everything in life will be fair. Even then, if something is so unfair that it reaches a Constitutional test, then it should be addressed at the local, state, or federal level.
We shouldn’t blindly follow any law. We do need to go about remedying that law in productive ways though. Setting yourself up to fail is not productive.
Sorry I’ve enver heard of a road that had to be driven at a certain speed to be safe.
I don’t drive a lot but I have a son who is very good on such things. He has an engineering type brain and is a top notch mechanic. He’s got a very good eye and great instincts.
I’ve learned over the years that when he says something is happening, it’s usually happening.
Perhaps they were set at a long interval before and then reset to a normal length when cameras were installed. But he says certain lights are definitely shorter.
By the way, since the day Obama got in he’s been telling me he’s a muslim who is going to destroy Israel and shake the heck out of the mideast.
If it were 5 miles over or 10 that would be one thing but for 1? Speed trap pure and simple. The state should make the city post signs at city limit that the city has been designated a speed trap. And your speedometer being off 1 or 2 mph is probable. I have three vehicles and GPS says one of the three is off by 2mph.
You think your going the speed limit and then in 30 days you get a nice gift from the city in the mail and you get to pay them a $50 prize for playing a game you believed you were not playing. But of course you were speeding and breaking the law so common sense and doing the right thing be damned, the law is the law Barney.
Cops who wonder why the public does not give a damn about them anymore need only read these articles, those where cops shoot peoples dogs, etc etc.
They are perceived as the praetorian guard for the state and big govt, and nothing else.
Cops should take a lesson from Walmart.
They should write the hell out of tickets but charge a reasonable fine.
Make it up in volume. Everyone will be happy.
Unfortunately, that IS the perception. Fact is, the SCOTUS has ruled that a properly trained peace officer properly using an electronic speed measurement device to confirm the officer’s prior perception that a vehicle was exceeding the posted or presumed speed limit is prima facie proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the offense occurred.
IOW, unless the defense can show the officer wasn’t qualified to operate the radar/lidar or he testifies badly (didn’t estimate the speed first by eye), the driver loses. That doesn’t mean innocent till proven guilty, because the State still has to prove every element of its case beyond a reasonable doubt - it’s just that the evidentiary presumptions are against the defense.
Sometimes in larger jurisdictions, just showing up and betting the officer won’t will get the prosecutor to dismiss. In smaller jurisdictions like mine, we just set the case for trial.
Colonel, USAFR
I don’t drive a lot but I have a son who is very good on such things.
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He’d have fun reading these discussion sites on clearance intervals.
http://knowledge.fhwa.dot.gov/cops/opspublic.nsf/discussionDisplay?Open&id=F0977083E774B217852571CD007322B3&Group=Signals&tab=DISCUSSION
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/75766.html
If enough people looked into this and fought in court or wrote ‘letters to the editors’ or whatnot, more people would see red light cameras for what they really are “revenue generation devices” - they need to fix the intervals for safety - but that wouldn’t be revenue enhancing......
We are now fully in the leftist State.
We work for them! We are just the unwashed, illiterate masses who need to have their wallets emptied to fund their salaries and need to keep our mouths shut while they do the emptying.
To all these leftists twits, they are the only decent people and those of us who are not Government workers are just the cows needing to be milked.
I “sorta” (that’s a legal term, right?) get the speeding part. What about an illegal lane change or turn. There is no measurement instrument. Say there is a driver and a passenger who say there was no illegal lane change, but the cops says there was?
It’s the prosecution’s burden to prove each and every element of any offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Further, here in Texas, the Code of Criminal Procedure says the prosecutor’s job “is not to convict, but to ensure that justice is done”. It’s normally not the number of witnesses, but the weight given to each witness’ truthfulness, memory, etc., that a judge (in a bench trial) or jury will use to either convict or acquit.
I’ll tell you that for the prosecutor, the best thing since sliced bread in failure to yield or failure to stop cases has been digital video. It’s amazing how many people were just certain they’d stopped, but when they see themselves rolling through the intersection, they ask for deferred disposition or defensive driving.
Colonel, USAFR
i had a 'traffic school' instructor tell me point blank that most anything done in a car, and brought before a judge, was basically designed and codified to give the benefit of the doubt to the trustworthy leo, at the expense of the criminal/citizen...leos 'word' is gold, commoner, not so much...otherwise you wouldnt be before the judge, right ???
thanks again, i always get *something* from yer posts...
..and, there I have my answer. In all practicality, you're guilty as soon as the cop decides that you are.
I understand about the full stops too. I have been very conscious of my stops since a coworker got a $400 camera ticket. I stop until the car "settles" backwards, then proceed.
lol. in our car we don’t call them traffic cops, we call them tax collectors.
That’s not even close to what I said.
Take a smooth straight 4 lane street with no traffic. One that is engineered to be save for speeds up to 50mph.
Then slap on a 30 mph speed limit. That is an invitation to speed.
Yes, because out-of-staters are the ONLY ones who speed. Right.
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