dealings ticket quotas — a practice in which police force military officer are either pressure or strictly required to issue a sealed turn of traffic ticket in a certain clock time frame of reference — were once kept under wraps but are now jolly much out in the open . Some law departments traverse that they have ever engaged in the practice , while others staunchly defend it . But why ? Why increase the world ’s mistrust of the law ? Why insist that police officers spend time make dealings stop for weak accusations of minor discourtesy , which often ask to be defended in court ? Could n’t all that time and effort and hands be better spent really protect and serve ?
unluckily , the response is a common one : it all come down to money . Plenty of police departments around the United States are facing high expense and smaller budget , and have come to see traffic ticket as a agency to increase revenue . Need more money to buy equipment or give raise or pay pensions ? Write more tickets and collect more fines .
It in reality seems like a pretty simple answer , at least on the surface , but as we have already found , it ’s problematic . dealings ticket amercement are supposed to be a hindrance and a penalization , not a way to equilibrise the budget . But police policeman are under so much imperativeness in some cities , that they have been caught writing fake tickets or have come forward to say they ’re uncomfortable with the tactics they ’re instruct to use , such as intimidating motorists and writing just the ticket based on a really weak he - said / she - articulate scenario .
The land of Illinois is remark for passing a law ostracize the carrying out of dealings ticket quota , but lot of other city and town say that ’s simply not an choice . They need the money they pull in from all those ticket , and the more money they get accustomed to racking up , the more they ’ll postulate in the time to come , so this recitation is unlikely to change anytime soon .
And how lucrative is it , anyway ? Enough that the Atlanta Police Department funds its officers ' raises ground on income from traffic tickets [ seed : AOL motorcar ] . Since 2002 , 11 law departments in the Detroit metro region have increase traffic ticketing by 90 percent ( and cede , no one would say they ’re nonplus rich from it , but that ’s a huge , and not coincidental , increase ) . In Dearborn , just out of doors of Detroit , a driver who gets pulled over for going just 5 mile per hour ( 8 kilometers per 60 minutes ) over the speed limit is thrash with a $ 90 ticket [ source : Hunter ] .
And what can the public do ? Not much , besides things you should be doing anyway . Be extra careful on the road , do n’t let a patrol car restrain you into hurrying or blowing a signal and go to dealings courtyard to fight ticket in the hope that the officer wo n’t show up .
