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I was on my way down to the Salvation Army SE Headquarters last night to return a borrowed trombone when I was pulled over by one of DeKalb County's finest. It seems that I had made an illegal right turn on red. I was in unfamiliar territory, trying to watch out for traffic while keeping my directions straight and didn't see the no right turn sign. I was very nice to the officer although I was obviously surprised that I was being cited. I finally told him as I was presented the ticket that I had really expected a warning. There was no oncoming traffic and I was a danger to no one. He said, "We don't do that anymore. You did the crime, you pay the fine." Well the ticket is $250. I have a friend in that department who advised me just to pay it. He said they make 90 million a year off traffic fines and the judges don't let anyone off the hook. Is this par for the course where you are? I haven't had a ticket in 20 years and maybe I am behind the times. Chime in Doc.

It's par for the course where I live...the slightest infraction earns you a citation. I've always assumed it was because this is a "college town" so it's easy pickin's.

I compensate by obeying the traffic laws at all times, so that the police don't have a reason to pull me over. That includes checking all my lights at the first of the month (tomorrow - thanks for the reminder!).

Sorry you got caught, but "I was a danger to no one" really isn't an excuse. One of my patrolman friends here works the night shift often and tells me I wouldn't believe how many people use that one as a justification for running red lights late at night.

I would have expected a warning as well, one your liscense was checked.
If you had lots of violation in the system, maybe not.

Missing a small sign that contradicts the general rules of the road, when there was little/no traffic doesn't seam to warrant $250. If you didn't stop at the light before turning, sure but for making a right on red with no traffic?

tbn.al wrote:I have a friend in that department who advised me just to pay it. He said they make 90 million a year off traffic fines and the judges don't let anyone off the hook.

How much of the $250 is court costs, 'cuz you're going to pay them even if you contest it and win, so it's probably not worth the time to fight it provided conviction (paying the ticked is an admission of guilt) doesn't affect your insurance rate.

Recently contested a $135 speeding ticket ($15 fine, $120 court costs) and won. No fine, but still had to pay the $120 court costs.

Only reason I went to the trouble was it saved me 1 insurance point, which would have cost me an add'l $87/year for 3 years.

A TCD (Traffic control device) violation ticket is $265 in my jurisdiction. Traffic enforcement is what it is (not my favorite way to spend a shift, but one of my responsibilities) and no one is ever happy when they get the ticket, but are angry when the "blatent violator" isn't cited.

Dismissal/reschedules vary due to court. I have missed court due to illness, SWAT call-outs, surgery, being involved in a criminal investigation that I couldn't leave, and oversleeping. Only the oversleeping one was dismissed--rightfully so, it was my bad. Smoking policies vary. If it is an assigned vehicle, it is considered personal work space. If it is a shared vehicle, it could be a designated smoking vehicle. Our policy prohibits tobacco use by employees when they are hired...lots of my coworkers smoke or chew now. Funny that.

Not supporting decent pay for law enforcement because you got a citation instead of a warning for committing a traffic violation? There are many things that I could say, some of them might even be permissible on this forum. What I will say, in paraphrase, is that you can sleep safe at night because there are a few rough men (and women) ready to do violence on your behalf when the predators come to call. Remember that the cop that wrote that pinch could also be the one chasing down the bad man who was doing bad things to you or your loved ones.

Ally"who hates working traffic, cites really dangerous drivers, and leaves truckers alone"House

If you're ever in Newburgh... just tell the officer "I'm with the band". You'll probably just get a warning and an escort to the rehearsal hall!

Funny that they've been putting messages on the electronic road signs lately, things like "Motorcycle Awareness Begins With You" and other Orwellian slogans.

Funny, since every time I go past one particular one, a motorcyclist has blown by me at roughly 90mph, weaving in and out of 5 lanes wide, rush hour traffic.

Yep, and it's my fault if I hit him.

eupher61 wrote:Funny that they've been putting messages on the electronic road signs lately, things like "Motorcycle Awareness Begins With You" and other Orwellian slogans.

Those messages are inconsistent with current Federal policy on the use of dynamic message signs. Current Federal policy suggests that dynamic message signs should be dynamic, showing information of real-time significance. The preferred display is travel time to the next major landmark, assuming the detection systems can support travel time estimation.

But never underestimate how much local politicians revere their own traffic engineering expertise. That expertise is only exceeded by the expertise of those whose demonstration of same is the driver's license they carry.

Rick "opposed to so-called public-service messages on dynamic message signs" Denney

tofu wrote:I had no idea that a stop sign violation was such an expensive ticket. $250 seems excessive as I always thought those were $25 fines. Maybe since I don't get tickets I'm out of touch but that seems way more than even a 25 mph over speeding ticket.

The cost of a ticket includes both the fine and court costs. If you break out the total between fine and court costs, I'd bet the actual fine is no more than $50.

In many states, municipalities retain a significant portion of the court costs, which means that tickets are at tempting source of significant "revenue enhancement." Anecdotal evidence suggests, and at least one academic study documents, that the number of citations issued does, in fact, increase during economic downturns and periods of high local unemployment (see Red Ink in the Rearview Mirror: Local Fiscal Conditions and the Issuance of Traffic Tickets)

Abstract
Municipalities have revenue motives for enforcing traffic laws in addition to public safety motives because many traffic offenses are punished via fines and the issuing municipality often retains the revenue. Anecdotal evidence supports this revenue motive. We empirically test revenue motive using panel data on North Carolina counties. We find that significantly more tickets are issued in the year following a decline in revenue, but the issuance of traffic tickets does not decline in years following revenue increases. Our results suggest that tickets are used as a revenue generation tool rather than solely a means to increase public safety.

Given the state of the economy over the past year, there's likey to be a significan rise in the number of tickets issues, which means that the odds of receiving a ticket are greater than they were this time last year, and we can probably expect an increase in court costs as well.

Ok, so I paid the ticket today. $142. Not as bad as I had expected, but still a heck of a lot for a momentary lapse in awareness that endangered no one. I am still not happy with the smart mouthed officer, but I've mouthed off worse before myself. I survived the lapse, no one got hurt and I've paid my debt to society. Case closed.

How'd you get it reduced from $250?

You have my sympathies, especially since you've got Chief Bolton there. He was fired from the Dallas PD for a lot of reasons, mostly incompetence.

tbn.al wrote:a momentary lapse in awareness that endangered no one.

A nearly perfect description of nearly all "moving violations," or at least the excuse used to justify them.

My pet peeve is people who turn from the inside lane to the outside lane.

The more income challenged the community is, the bigger the traffic fines, fees, etc. will be. In my home state of Texas, speed traps abound, especially in poor rural areas...this is a big source of income for these communities and thats not going to change so I obey the speed limit to the letter when passing through these "one traffic light" towns. Just be more aware when on the road.

schlepporello wrote:

TUBAD83 wrote:The more income challenged the community is, the bigger the traffic fines, fees, etc. will be. In my home state of Texas, speed traps abound, especially in poor rural areas...this is a big source of income for these communities and thats not going to change so I obey the speed limit to the letter when passing through these "one traffic light" towns. Just be more aware when on the road.

Estelline, Texas
Tulia, Texas
Memphis, Texas..........................

Splendora, TX
Cleveland, TX
Shepherd, TX

(back to back to back on 59 north of Houston)

sungfw wrote:How'd you get it reduced from $250?

I didn't. The officer told me that was about what it would be. It turned out his quote was high. Still more than I wanted to pay.