USF professor Barbara Orban has sued the TPD for having a ticket quota. Ticket quotas are illegal. Police Chief Stephen Hogue claims there is no quota, but lets his officers know how many tickets the “average” officer might issue.
The “average” for TPD is around 72 a year. You read that correctly; 72 per year!!
Good golly! Tampa Police need to be convinced to write SIX tickets per month? With the way people drive around here (does anyone NOT speed?), I could give 2 or 3 citations a day for agressive driving just on my way to work!! And on the way home, I could get 2 or 3 for running red lights. So most cops could average at least one and one half tickets per week, dontcha think?
But finding traffic scofflaws is not the problem. Lazy cops is the problem.
Hogue: “Officers don’t want to write traffic tickets because they don’t like to go to court.”
Lt. Geraldine McNamara: “A lot of times, officers will try to pin us down on a number. If they’re doing nothing else, I told them they’re expected to write a certain amount [of tickets]. They’re getting paid to be at work 11 1/2 hours a day, they’d better be doing something.”
Or maybe it’s cops who think they are not only cops, but also judge, jury, and financial advisor. In a deposition filed in Orban’s case, officer Edward Bowden (he issued Orban’s citation) says:
“The expense of a current moving violation I do not like. That’s probably part of the reason I don’t write many tickets.”
Yeah… Uh, Officer Bowden, that is the point. If it costs too much to get a ticket, perhaps folks will drive safer.
The article does not tell us why Orban has filed the suit. All we know is that she rear-ended a car in SoHo, and got cited for careless driving.
Hey Professor Orban – You ran into the back of someone. That’s pretty careless. Quit whining, and just pay the ticket.
If anything, the person who got hit should sue TPD for failing to write enough tickets, thereby encouraging careless drivers like Orban to continue putting other citizens in danger.
Rachel*
4 years ago
You know, sometimes, I’ll read something here and have no sense of the authorial voice whatsoever, but this one, sounds like Tommy all the way!
editengine
4 years ago
I remember hearing somebody explain it the way the deputy explained it to them, even a minor speeding ticket costs over $100. For a lot of people that means no grocieries get bought that week and the deputy dreaded causing that much hardship. It says a lot that the most heartless of ticket writers (State Troopers) are the ones that have to clean up the worst wrecks. I spoke to a deputy once that did hate writing tickets largely because it could mean a whole day in court that may have been one of his days off.
editengine
4 years ago
Oh also he said that if the department looks at high crash locations and sees a low number of traffic citations in the area they will pressure the local squads to increase traffic enforcement.
Joel
4 years ago
I’m not so sure the cost of a moving violation or speeding ticket is enough. I’ve read that Finland bases the cost of a traffic ticket on the guilty party’s income. A big business heir received a speeding ticket worth the equivalent of $210,000. I know people who have in all seriousness said they don’t care about speeding because they can afford the ticket and insurance hits. Just go to school, take the class to lose the points, and go back out and do it all over again.
Maureen
4 years ago
That is true, for a lot of people the cost is not that big of a deal…but you can only take the class once per year to get points off of your license. So if you drive around recklessly thinking “It doesn’t cost that much” you will soon find yourself without a license.
Fred
4 years ago
Why does Florida have a class where people can get their points removed? Could that – just possibly – have something to do with the high accident rates here?
wifey
4 years ago
If a “lazy” or “soft-hearted” cop has one of thier family members killed by a reckless driver then maybe they will start writting the tickets!
We have the laws for good reasons, do your job.
editengine
4 years ago
off subjuct a little but I though thtis was pretty funny, was going to court on day (to pay a speeding ticket) and saw a Highway Patrol cop parking his bike out front. When I looked closely he had a license plate frame that said, “Smile, I could be behind you.”