Misdemeanor

[Private Investigator]

Traffic tickets are a real revenue generating machine for many jurisdictions.  It is far more about cash flow than law and order.   If you are a victim of a crime don't be surprised that local law enforcement doesn't have the personnel to investigate but they sure do seem to have plenty of personnel with the spare time to sit around waiting to pull you over to issue a traffic ticket.  Investigating crimes costs money, writing ticket makes money.  That is their game.

David, that is how it is. Every agency has an agenda and a budget. In a small town or county, the bean counters will tell you, your people need to write "x" number of tickets or we are laying off some people. It is what it is   

[Devil Doc]

I seriously didnt know i was speeding when i got pulled over. I left work early because i was sick. I was just trying to drive home, the speeds he clocked me at though seemed a bit odd, because for my truck to do that speed musta been when going down hill. Anwyho, that remindes me Court Date is Sept 4th, and i have gotten nos lawyers yet. So... I cant miss work, so maybe i will pay it off, err, hire a lawyer soon?

Doc, you did not get the citation in Hickory did you? Anyways good luck ...

LOL, what do you know about Hickory, NC. Didnt know you lived in NC. Actually i work in Salisbury, he got me coming home in Statesville    Darn State Tropper? I understand he was doing hid job

[Ned]

Traffic tickets are a real revenue generating machine for many jurisdictions.  It is far more about cash flow than law and order.   If you are a victim of a crime don't be surprised that local law enforcement doesn't have the personnel to investigate but they sure do seem to have plenty of personnel with the spare time to sit around waiting to pull you over to issue a traffic ticket.  Investigating crimes costs money, writing ticket makes money.  That is their game.

David, that is how it is. Every agency has an agenda and a budget. In a small town or county, the bean counters will tell you, your people need to write "x" number of tickets or we are laying off some people. It is what it is   

Interestingly, it can work both ways.  Our traffic court has noted a huge drop in citations being filed.  The fact that the officers in our largest city took a 10% pay cut and are a little unhappy is probably just a coincidence.  Plus since there are fewer of them, they are much busier just responding to priority calls and have less time for proactive stuff like traffic enforcement.

[a2capt]

OTOH, the Redflex cameras have absolutely crammed the court dockets here. Several jurisdictions in the area have dropped cameras as of late, but not the immediate one.  I will say I do like how they turned it around and thumped them on the whole revenue sharing game and turned it into a simple cost center like the police officer costs X amount per month, writing tickets, filling out reports, or talking on the radio. Redflex gets a fixed amount per deployed device. Period.

[Private Investigator]

I seriously didnt know i was speeding when i got pulled over. I left work early because i was sick. I was just trying to drive home, the speeds he clocked me at though seemed a bit odd, because for my truck to do that speed musta been when going down hill. Anwyho, that remindes me Court Date is Sept 4th, and i have gotten nos lawyers yet. So... I cant miss work, so maybe i will pay it off, err, hire a lawyer soon?

Doc, you did not get the citation in Hickory did you? Anyways good luck ...

LOL, what do you know about Hickory, NC. Didnt know you lived in NC. Actually i work in Salisbury, he got me coming home in Statesville    Darn State Tropper? I understand he was doing hid job

Back in my active duty days in Jacksonville, the girlfriend's parents lived in Hickory. He was retired MSgt, USMC. Beautiful country and did some hunting out that way. State Troopers is an impressive group.   :clap:

[Private Investigator]

Traffic tickets are a real revenue generating machine for many jurisdictions.  It is far more about cash flow than law and order.   If you are a victim of a crime don't be surprised that local law enforcement doesn't have the personnel to investigate but they sure do seem to have plenty of personnel with the spare time to sit around waiting to pull you over to issue a traffic ticket.  Investigating crimes costs money, writing ticket makes money.  That is their game.

David, that is how it is. Every agency has an agenda and a budget. In a small town or county, the bean counters will tell you, your people need to write "x" number of tickets or we are laying off some people. It is what it is   

Interestingly, it can work both ways.  Our traffic court has noted a huge drop in citations being filed.  The fact that the officers in our largest city took a 10% pay cut and are a little unhappy is probably just a coincidence.  Plus since there are fewer of them, they are much busier just responding to priority calls and have less time for proactive stuff like traffic enforcement.

Very true indeed sir.

[bflynn]

Is traffic school an option in your state?

Usually not - North Carolina has a system where a NC citizen can basically have one minor incident forgiven every five years.  It's called a Prayer for Justice (PFJ) and is kind of like getting probation for three years.  Granting it is up to the DA and usually you wind up paying a small fine, but get no points on your license and therefore no insurance cost.  But if you get stopped again in the next three years, then the first ticket comes back and you have to deal with both of them.

I'm probably not describing that right because it's been a really long time since I had to deal with that.  Long enough ago that 55 was the max speed limit anywhere, even on hwy 70 between Kinston and New Bern.

[bflynn]

Officer: Is there anything in the car Illegal you should tell me about before I Search the Car

Motorist:  I do not consent to any search of my car, Officer.

The only right answer to a jerk question.  Anything else probably consititues consent in the officer's eyes.  Actually to some officers, this answer probably constitutes probably cause...

[Flying Pig]

Officer: Is there anything in the car Illegal you should tell me about before I Search the Car

Motorist:  I do not consent to any search of my car, Officer.

The only right answer to a jerk question.  Anything else probably consititues consent in the officer's eyes.  Actually to some officers, this answer probably constitutes probably cause...

Do you have absolutely ANY idea how law enforcement works outside of CSI Miami or are you just making this up as you type?   I usually prefer beating people with a 4' section of garden hose when they refuse my demands. 

[BillB]

So very glad I live severial counties north of Flying Pig

[Eclipse]

There's always the option to just obey the law and not have anything illegal in your car, too...

[Майор Хаткевич]

There's always the option to just obey the law and not have anything illegal in your car, too...

For a lot of folks, refusing a search is all about the principle of their rights than being afraid of what they do or don't have in the car.

[JeffDG]

There's always the option to just obey the law and not have anything illegal in your car, too...

For a lot of folks, refusing a search is all about the principle of their rights than being afraid of what they do or don't have in the car.

Yep...the whole "If you're not doing anything wrong" line of thinking.

If you're not doing anything wrong, why not let the police go door to door and search houses at random?

[Eclipse]

For starters, that's not what they are doing, is it? So not relevent to the conversation.
Contrary to a number of people on YouTube, it is >not< a slippery slope between you getting pulled over with a
broken tail light and a .002 on your breath and the hob nails kicking in your front door.

Philosophical arguments look great on T-Shirts and tend to break down somewhat when you're leaning
forward on the hood of a police car in handcuffs.

I've had plenty of youthful folly-level contact with local law enforcement, plenty, in a town known for not
suffering fools by its police officers.  Not exactly something to brag about, but there you go.

Two things:
1. I was never pulled over without violating the law (they all count, not just the ones you think are important).
2. Being a smarty pants or making the cop's job harder didn't make my evening go any smoother.

[Flying Pig]

So very glad I live severial counties north of Flying Pig

But didnt you know that all cops everywhere all know each other?  I have this big spot light that I shine into the night sky thats shaped like a pig. Any officer that sees it calls me on a red phone I have and together we plot our devious scheme against the citizenry.

[Brad]

So very glad I live severial counties north of Flying Pig

But didnt you know that all cops everywhere all know each other?  I have this big spot light that I shine into the night sky thats shaped like a pig. Any officer that sees it calls me on a red phone I have and together we plot our devious scheme against the citizenry.

That or get a relative out of a ticket. Guaranteed to get a phone call at least once a week that starts like this:

"Hi, my name is Debbie Dumbdriver and my father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate is a cop in Boston, and I got a ticket down there in SC a few months ago, and I'm wondering if the Trooper that wrote me  could help me out with it?"

Yea, ok, because that REALLY means SO MUCH in the realm of professional courtesy. -_-

[Flying Pig]

So very glad I live severial counties north of Flying Pig

But didnt you know that all cops everywhere all know each other?  I have this big spot light that I shine into the night sky thats shaped like a pig. Any officer that sees it calls me on a red phone I have and together we plot our devious scheme against the citizenry.

That or get a relative out of a ticket. Guaranteed to get a phone call at least once a week that starts like this:

"Hi, my name is Debbie Dumbdriver and my father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate is a cop in Boston, and I got a ticket down there in SC a few months ago, and I'm wondering if the Trooper that wrote me  could help me out with it?"

Yea, ok, because that REALLY means SO MUCH in the realm of professional courtesy. -_-

Its unfortunate that you feel that way.  Because I wake up everyday completely willing to flush my 16 year career and my families way of life on a bad search, a civil rights violation or making a computer generated cite/case numbers just "disappear". You know... because Im just a bad person overall and whats authority if you cant abuse it.  I know thousands of cops like me.  Please mail back your Thin Blue Line card.  You do have one dont you?

[abdsp51]

We were just having this conversation at work yesterday.  And as I tell everyone and my math could be wrong as it is not a strong point for me, but 90% of all encounters people have with a LE agency regardless of which on it is was brought upon by the party.  90% of the time most people wind up talking themselves into a matching set of bracelets and going to jail. 

Yes, there are plenty of people running around Youtube asserting their rights about search and seizures, open carry, filming the police and who knows what else.  Most of these people assert their rights usually are going off of their interpretation of what the Constitution says and not any legal standing.  Case in point there is a group here in Az that intentionally goes out and films CBP and attempts to escalate a confrontation with them as they are asserting their right that the CBP checkpoints are unconstitutional based on the 4th amendment.  Nevermind that SCOTUS has ruled in 1979 that the temporary deprivation of rights is allowed and constitutional and that CBP checkpoints are considered border searches.   

Bottom line if you don't do anything wrong don't throw the rights card and be polite and you'll be on your way.  Be a clown about it and well now it will be dragged out.

[Brad]

Case in point there is a group here in Az that intentionally goes out and films CBP and attempts to escalate a confrontation with them as they are asserting their right that the CBP checkpoints are unconstitutional based on the 4th amendment.  Nevermind that SCOTUS has ruled in 1979 that the temporary deprivation of rights is allowed and constitutional and that CBP checkpoints are considered border searches.

I've seen those nutjobs on the internet. Makes me wanna reach through the screen and smack all those jackwagons upside the head. Asserting your rights within the bounds of common sense is one thing, but being an inciteful jerk about it is totally different. The fringe elements on both sides of the aisle have apparently forgotten that us LE folks are humans just like them with kids and families we want to provide for and be able to go home to at the end of the day/night.

[Mitchell 1969]

Officer: Is there anything in the car Illegal you should tell me about before I Search the Car

Motorist:  I do not consent to any search of my car, Officer.

The only right answer to a jerk question.  Anything else probably consititues consent in the officer's eyes.  Actually to some officers, this answer probably constitutes probably cause...

I think you've totally missed the point. Read the "jerk question" again. The cop isn't asking for permission to search anything at that point. S/he is asking a question that will help facilitate a search that WILL happen, permission granted or not. And, yes, there are such things.