Some DeKalb Police Threaten to Stop Giving Traffic Tickets in Budget Protest
Decatur Metro | February 26, 2010 | 9:05 amAfter DeKalb’s budget for the coming year passed with no furlough days, no pay on holidays (police still have to work on holidays), and no merit pay increases, some DeKalb police officers on the DeKalb Officers blog threatened to stop giving out traffic tickets in protest.
That led to this CBS Atlanta report…
And that led the DeKalb Officers blog to respond with this statement, which reads in part…
We all took an oath to protect and serve the citizens of DeKalb County, and we intend to do just that. If you have a true emergency or are in need of protection from being a victim, especially a victim of violence, we are coming.
…But on the other hand, when it comes to traffic enforcement, we have discretion and lots of it. During these times when the commissioners are forcing us to work on holidays for no pay, we may just look the other way when you ease through that traffic sign or fail to use a turn signal. We envision traffic citations decreasing and warning tickets increasing. But please, not for one second believe we will allow anyone to place someone ease’s life in danger.
The commission has suggested traffic fines be increased by 3%. We don’t agree. That is just another back door tax on the motorist within DeKalb County. We are not tax collectors. We are law enforcement officers.
Dereliction would be a more effective blackmail threat if they ever enforced traffic laws to begin with.
The commission has suggested traffic fines be increased by 3%. We don’t agree. That is just another back door tax on the motorist within DeKalb County. We are not tax collectors. We are law enforcement officers.
____________
This is hard to argue with.
Fines (and enforcement) are way too low as evidenced by the lawless attitude of the average driver.
If the fines had kept up with inflation, a simple speeding ticket should be $600.00
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/13/a_century_ago_boston_led_the_way_in_taming_the_states_wild_roads/?page=2
So I take it you’d be A OK if tagged with a $600 ticket for doing 70 in a 60 mph zone?
Getting a speeding ticket is certainly an easy situation to avoid.
Yes, I would be “fine” with that.
BTw I have been driving for forty years and have never ever recieved a speeding ticket.
So you are the one blocking traffic?
Mike,
Your assertion that obeying important public safety laws is the same as “blocking traffic” merely proves that some have a lawless attitude towards operating motor vehicles. Better enforcement and stronger penalties are desperately needed to curb this dangerous attitude.
What’s more dangerous — doing 75 on a highway, or 45? I say 45. You are like a rolling road block at that speed, though you are (barely) within the letter of the law. Ditto for the constant parade of idiots doing 55 in the left lane, forcing people to pass on the right. The constant changing of lanes is far more dangerous that allowing people to speed on the left.
Rather than focus on what is important in auto safety — making drivers pay close attention and drive with lane discipline — we focus instead on speed. Hey, it’s the easy answer. But heaven forbid people are made to stop texting, talking on cell phones, eating Wendy’s, etc., when operating 3,000 pound vehicles.
Also, there is a huge difference between lawlessness and making a prudent decision that a posted speed limit is too low. That’s why nearly everyone speeds on a very routine basis (except you, I know — which I frankly don’t beleieve). That doesn’t mean they have no regard for any traffic laws at all. Of course, the idea that the governent has in all cases posted the correct speed limit is laughable. The 55 mph limit that prevailed for so many years, for example, had nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with fuel consumption.
I’ve made a prudent decision that I need that ring more than Tiffany’s does.
I don’t blame them…..from what I understand, we have millions of dollars in unpaid fines…..start collecting them and stop penalizing our officers. Most of them are underpaid anyway.
Seems like a thoughtful way to protest a difficult situation in high crime county. It will certainly get attention and hopefully some constructive results.
Maybe they can get paid from some of the recovered school-construction fraud lucre.
Maybe they should just limit their services to 911 calls. If they sit around the office “writing reports,” they won’t even notice all the other stuff that happens. That would save a lot of $. Cruising uselessly on the streets and highways requires gasoline. They could just go park a few police cars near strategic corners and let it go at that.
Hats off to our law enforcement officers.
Sensible, articulate and spot on!
traffic laws and their subsequent enforcement seem arbitrary and focused on “revenue” generation (revenue being another word for tax). Obscured by the safety conversation. Less focus on turn signals and more scrutiny on car jacking and violent crime etc
More and more folks are standing up to be counted. That is a grand thing
I suspect that the threat to “revenue” is just the reason that they chose the course that they did.
some munipalities may look for revenue but actually traffic enforcement is a valuable tool for reducing crime.
http://www.slate.com/id/2226509/
” Most crimes involve driving. But another factor is that people with off-road criminal records have been shown, in a number of studies, to commit more on-road violations.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if over the last decade at least 50% of suspects wanted in off-road crimes are found after getting pulled over for a traffic violation. I googled the phrase “wanted suspect arrested traffic stop” without the quotation marks and among the results:
http://www.state.tn.us/safety/newsreleases/2008/080113THPtrafficstopArrest.htm
http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/01/19/article/most_wanted_suspect_arrested
http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/Default.aspx?id=1707
http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/2009/04/lincoln-traffic.html
And here is something from the United States Virgin Islands PD about the useful traffic stop:
http://www.vipd.gov.vi/the_beat/beat_article_041.aspx
It’s true. Many stops for minor traffic violations result in much larger cases. The revenue (which, BTW, does not go directly to the Police Department), is secondary.
The police aren’t necessarily saying they won’t pull people over. The issue is how many traffic tickets are issued. They are saying they will issue more warnings, less tickets. I doubt that means probable cause to suspect more serious crimes will be ignored. They may not want to give you a ticket for the traffic offense, but they won’t ignore blood stains on the back seat.
Also, these articles beg the question of what kind of traffic violations correlate with off-road crimes. Damn near everyone speeds to some degree, for example. Many people don’t signal turns all the time, etc. I very much doubt these kinds of minor violations correlate to serious crimes. If they did, then something like 50% or more of all drivers on the road could be expected to be “guilty” of serious off-road offenses, which is absurd. For example, almost everyone on 285 or Ponce right now could be pulled over for doing more than the posted limit.
I loved this study: http://www.physorg.com/news150992952.html
Citations are about the revenue.
Of course they are. Think about the red light cameras. Many municipalities took them down when it cost more to have them than they produced. That’s public safety for you.
The blog entry mentions “look the other way” but follows with “traffic citations decreasing and warning tickets increasing”. So I’m not sure if this means they intend to decrease the number of stops or just decrease citations. If they make the stop, and get the information necessary to issue a warning ticket, they’ll still catch people with warrants.
I thnk it means they’ll sit in the prowler and browse the internet
I’m afraid you’re right. And, they might think about their semi-strike — many people would love to have a job with benefits right now in this bad economy. If I deliberately slowed down my work or worked less efficiently than expected, overtime paid or unpaid, I would expect future performance reviews to reflect that. Also, the people endangered by their work slowdown/semi-strike are the very ones they are sworn to protect. I resent their backlash strategy, speaking for myself.
It’s disturbing enough to know I’m not the only George that posts here. It’s even more disturbing to realize I almost always agree with doppelganger George when he does post.
(I’m wondering if I just have an eponymous alter-ego.)
I see two problems with their approach of threating to reduce traffic enforcement.
#1 Traffic enforcement among metro agencies has always been low to nonexistant so this “in”action will go virtually unoticed.
#2 The miniscule traffic enforcement that does occur is extremely unpopular with the electorate so reducing enforcement is a positive reward.
Tactically. They’re doing it completely wrong. They should be blackmailing taxpayers with the threat of extreme traffic enforcement vigilance instead of rewarding us for not paying them enough. Don’t anybdy tell them though.
I didn’t know they enforced traffic laws. After living in Atlanta for nearly 20 years now, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Dekalb County police officer pulling over a vehicle for a traffic violation. I have, however, seen a whole lot of them speeding up and down surface streets without lights or sirens. I’m not certain how they could see a violent crime being committed when driving 40+ mph.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate people who are willing to put their lives on the line for me. I just wish they’d be a little more safe while doing so.
Regarding speeding on the interstates, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think county officers have jurisdiction over the interstates. I think its just state troopers.
All officers have traffic jurisdiction over all roadways within their geography. Guess you’ve never seen a DeKalb or Doraville officer with someone stopped on I-285. I have.
Apparently, DeKalb County caught wind of this threat to their revenue and acted in advance to lessen the impact. They are now charging $3 to park at the Jail/Recorders Court/Magistrate Court complex. ALL lots there are now pay lots. If you want to fight a speeding ticket, visit someone at the jail or get subpoenaed to Magistrate Court, you have to pay to park. No exceptions for attorneys even.
Just for jail visitations and mandatory Recorders Court appearances, this is several thousands dollars a day! Then again, the majority of this money will go to the privately owned AAA Parking and its attendants. I wonder who’s getting the kickback on this one!
I think that’s old news. I believe they’ve been doing that for a while.
Nope, it’s brand new as of last week. All the visitor lots there have always been free, they just started the pay parking last week. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a bit if they had some DeKalb County employees out there collecting the money. It would only take 2 or 3 at a time. Instead, they contracted out to a private company, so the county is only getting a fraction of the revenue that they could be making on this.