Whenever I go to a party or other social function, I inevitably end up in a conversation with somebody about a traffic ticket they received. There is such misunderstanding and misinformation about traffic tickets that I end up in a protracted explanation of traffic enforcement as a whole. There are so many myths and misconceptions out there that I thought it might be nice to put some things out for all to read. My intent is to break this up into a series. The following is the first segment.
Traffic ticket myth and fact: PART 1
Last July, the traffic fines in the state of California went up sharply. Other states are also adopting the same sharp increases as a means of gathering “revenue” in this crummy economy. As a result, I have noticed a sharp increase in the number of people taking the matter to traffic court. With fines in the $300, $500 or even $700 range, it’s no wonder that people are trying to find any way to beat the ticket or simply have the fine reduced.
The following is a little “truth” about traffic tickets that you might not know. Please feel free to add your 2 cents. I will respond to all comments and emails.
MYTH 1 Cops enjoy giving tickets.
Most cops do not enjoy giving traffic tickets. Let me repeat this…. It’s true; most cops do not enjoy giving traffic tickets. This may be hard to believe if you have ever been on the receiving end of a citation. But it really is true. Most don’t. Most cops would prefer “catching criminals”. The traffic stop for a vehicle code violation often puts a cop in contact with an otherwise law abiding person. That person may even have a positive or favorable view of the police. They may have committed some thoughtless violation that we have all done at one time or another. It is true that infraction citations (95% of vehicle code violations are infractions) are discretionary. Meaning, an officer can issue a citation or a warning. So, why do cops issue citations? Here is some insight:
There are basically 2 kinds of traffic tickets: We call them “Movers” and “Mechanicals”. Mechanicals are equipment violations most often associated with the vehicle itself (inoperative headlight, expired registration, loud exhaust, tinted windows, etc). These are correctable and can have no fine if fixed within a designated time frame (usually 10 to 30 days). There is sometimes a nominal paperwork processing fee associated with these ($10 to $25 depending on the jurisdiction). “Movers” are non-mechanical violations, but depending on the violation may or may not be a “point” on your driving record. There are basically 2 kinds of “Movers”: PCF violations and all others. PCF strands for Primary Collision Factor and it is the essential cause or finding for traffic crashes. Failing to yield and speed are some of the most common PCF violations.
There is a ton of research to indicate that there is a direct correlation between an increase the volume of traffic citations and a decrease in traffic accidents. That is the ultimate goal of the officer; to decrease traffic accidents and thus increase public safety. The myth that the officer is trying to generate revenue for the city or county is false.
MYTH 2: Cops write tickets to raise revenue for the city or county.
The Vehicle Code is state law. Traffic fines are set by the state. In California for example, the jurisdiction issuing the citation receives only a very small percentage of the fine amount (approximately 7%). The rest goes to the state. Some goes to the court system (again, a state function) and the rest to the general fund. So the idea that the cop is writing tickets to boost the city coffers is a myth. In reality, the money generated by the fine from a citation is far less than it costs to pay the cop to find, stop and cite the violator.
FACT 1: Attitude matters. Lying and defensiveness will only hurt your cause.
When a cop makes a traffic stop, the underlying purpose or mission is to change behavior. For example if the driver is speeding, the officer is merely trying to get the driver to slow down. If the cop believes that the behavior will change, the mission is accomplished and the ticket may not be forthcoming. The purpose of a traffic ticket is to compel the driver to change the behavior. A sure way to talk your self into a ticket is to lie about the behavior. If you were doing 60 in a 45 zone don’t insist that you were doing 45 when asked by the officer.
The lies are partly just a natural defense mechanism to getting caught doing something wrong. So, we partly take into account this natural reaction and attribute it to a consciousness of guilt. But lying about your speed or the color of the traffic light or anything else for that matter also makes one of the following statements to the officer. Either that you are asserting that the officer is lying about it, or that you are so unaware of what you are doing that you truly believe you have done nothing wrong. Neither of these bode well for you. Remember, the officer is trying to change behavior and correct a problem. If you are honest and offer some plausible reason or excuse, the officer may form the opinion that the problem has been corrected and a citation is not required. Lie and you are telling the officer that you require a fine to help motivate you to change the behavior. Cops appreciate and respect honesty. We rarely get it.
MYTH 3: Cops are out there hammering drivers all day long.
Most cops make very few traffic stops and write even fewer citations. Let me explain:
Cops have a number of different assignments within the agency. Many of these assignments are in uniform and in a marked police vehicle. The average citizen seeing a police car driving down the street has no idea what the particular assignment of that cop might be. There are full-time “Traffic officers” but they are a very small percentage of the overall police force. There are also Patrol officers, DARE, Juvenile officers, Community Resource officers, School Resource officers, Gang officers, and on and on. We have a number of duties within each assignment. So only a very small amount of the overall workday of a very small fraction of the officers that you see may be involved in the enforcement of traffic violations. Most cops, unless looking for pretextual stops, (see the next installment for the meaning of a “Pretext Stop”) will only stop the most egregious violations that happen to occur right in front of them. They are otherwise working on or doing other things.
MYTH 4: Cops have to generate a certain number of tickets (Quota).
There is absolutely no validity to the myth that cops have quotas and must issue citations to meet those numbers. In fact, quotas or any numerical “expectation” are completely illegal. The police union and the police administration act to check and balance against each other. If the police administration begins looking at the number of citations generated as a means to discipline or reward officers, the police union will call foul and make it stop.
Stay tuned for PART 2…..
Some of us may find it hard to believe that there are no economic pressures on police to write tickets. There’s a great article studying this in Massachusetts:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=961967
And you can read what a police chief in Michigan said about it:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/michigan-police-chiefs-admit-traffic-enforcement-is-for-revenue/
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Well written. I have been a city Police Officer for 12 yrs, and also have experienced trying to explain traffic enforcement to others. Although the numbers are slightly different here, the basic facts hold true. Good job.
Matt;
Thanks for the feedback. Stand by for part 2.
Stay safe!
Thank you mike. Hope you find it helpful and interesting.
I quit lying to cops in 2002 when I got defensive ,and I said I only had one drink. Well it was one of those single drinks that consist of a 375 ml vodka 80proof with a “whatever” for chaser .
I think we were both surprised as I blew 5.9. but he wrote it as a DUI.
I will never forget the embarrassment of 25+ DUI lawyer mailings I got from every Lawyer in town. I started attending drunk driving classes,in an assumed guilt manor, jumping the gun.But was able to leave after 8-10 days.
At the end of the ordeal I got “TOO FAST FOR CONDITIONS” which WAS only 400 dollars, and no insurance mess, PLUS god knows what I paid the lawyer and as I understand what usually amounts to 4-6000 dollar total bill
After what I consider “my acquittal”, the best thing in the world happened… I quit drinking that 375ml+ of alcohol every day. I just quit. I was an alcoholic, the classes led me to the acceptance of that, and the acquittal was the final cat live.
I escaped what could have been a DUI ( especially how I was acting) pleading to a “Too fast for Conditions” charge.
Somehow I strayed from my opening paragraph below, as I thought I accidentally deleted it. But I think it can stay.
I think that Lawyers hungry for a case may feed some of these Myths.
Even though I knew I was wrong, the lawyer would only focus on the possible loop hole since I blew under .08, vs what we said in court. He was upset that I started taking the drunk driving classes, and that I decided to apologize to the arresting officer.
I finally got pulled over, and for all things, no plates on a brand new car.
Thats my kind of ticket!
Thanks for this forum.
Vince
Wow Vince. Thank you for the very candid comments.
Good write up! I’m currently going into my seventh year in local town/city law enforcement in Indiana. Unfortunately I would like to clear some things up. While this may not be the case where you live, it could be! So be aware. While quota’s are illegal, my Police Department just recently passed a general order in which our Officers are required to write at least two pieces of paper per day (either a warning, or actual citation). Sounds like a quota right? Our department gets around this little issue of legality by calling it a “work standard” and says that this is perfectly legal as they did not mandate that the two pieces of paper be a citation, therefore still giving us the right to maintain our “Officers Discretion.”
As far as where the money from fines end up, yes it is true, if I write a citation for a state code violation, the State will end up with the majority of the money generated from that citation. Our town however has a town ordinance that mirrors almost every state violation, except those dealing with registration of a motor vehicle or licensing of a driver. Moving violations are included in town ordinance’s as well. If I cite a driver for a town ordinance, then all the money generated from that stop will stay with the town. Naturally all of our Officers are strongly encouraged to write a citation in violation of town ordinances rather than state code, whenever he/she feels that a citation is warranted. This policy is supported to the utmost from the Chief on down to the Patrol Commander. Further, while some area’s may only have a County court, our town has it’s own court, where all of the mideamenor cases filed by our Officers are charged through. While this can be advantageous to the town in the way of having people do community service, lets be honest, the biggest reason for this is once again the allmighty dollar. Again, fines levied in town court judgements stay in the town.
Most of all it’s true. I HATE writing tickets. Honesty is the best policy and the best way to drive away from a traffic stop with just a warning ticket, or even better a verbal warning. Remember cops are human like everyone else, emotions play alot into our jobs. The cop that just pulled you over may have just left a medical call in which somebody died, or just took a fatal crash report that was caused by the same action he just observed you commit while driving down the road. The ultimate goal is safety for everyone!
Great response. Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with it all! In several states, quota bans are codified in state law. California is one of those states. Here is a copy of the California Vehicle Code language for sections 41600 to 41603.
41600. For purposes of this chapter, “arrest quota” means any
requirement regarding the number of arrests made, or the number of
citations issued, by a peace officer, or parking enforcement
employee, or the proportion of those arrests made and citations
issued by a peace officer or parking enforcement employee, relative
to the arrests made and citations issued by another peace officer or
parking enforcement employee, or group of officers or employees.
41601. For purposes of this chapter, “citation” means a notice to
appear, notice of violation, or notice of parking violation.
41602. No state or local agency employing peace officers or parking
enforcement employees engaged in the enforcement of this code or any
local ordinance adopted pursuant to this code, may establish any
policy requiring any peace officer or parking enforcement employees
to meet an arrest quota.
41603. No state or local agency employing peace officers or parking
enforcement employees engaged in the enforcement of this code shall
use the number of arrests or citations issued by a peace officer or
parking enforcement employees as the sole criterion for promotion,
demotion, dismissal, or the earning of any benefit provided by the
agency. Those arrests or citations, and their ultimate dispositions,
may only be considered in evaluating the overall performance of a
peace officer or parking enforcement employees. An evaluation may
include, but shall not be limited to, criteria such as attendance,
punctuality, work safety, complaints by citizens, commendations,
demeanor, formal training, and professional judgment.
Look at the very specific language in 41600. We had a problem with a very stat heavy administration. They were regularly using numbers such as arrests and citations to compare one officer to another for evaluation purposes. This was very successfully quashed by presenting the Administration with a copy of this code and the gentle suggestion that it should stop.
Fines: Yes, I have heard of agencies creating municipal or county codes to mimic the state code. Recently, our city did this with all of the parking related codes. We threw away cases and cases of unissued parking cites and printed new cites with the municipal codes on them. Why? Because the city now gets all of the money from the cites. We can’t do that, however with violations generated from traffic stops. The reason is that the system here is all state court. So without major changes to the existing system, we can’t create a parallel citation system with municipal codes. Having said that, with the economy and government budgets being what they are, I do see that as a possibility in the future.
Your “2 piece of paper” system is cheesy. I have worked as a police officer and a sheriff’s deputy in the remotest of areas, and in urban housing projects and everything in between. Other than the super rural districts, it would be very hard to come back to the barn at the end of a shift without 2 pieces of some kind of paper. I’m not a manager and I can’t stand micromanaging or police personnel. But this seems a reasonable expectation to me. Even if you have to crank out 2 FI’s on a call for service, you are covered.
With respect to your comments regarding the emotional state of cops based on their experiences during their shift. This is part of my “Part 2” on the subject of tickets. So, stand by for my 2 cents on this…..