Beware Ft Worth police quota time

[Jeff_Green]

Originally Posted by tech1961

Yeah and I feel much better when they catch that speeding soccer Mom. That will teach her not speed 5 miles an hour over the limit you law breaking soccer mom you. Heck she was probably in a hurry to get home and watch the news to see who got shot or carjacked in her neighborhood today. You hear that you soccer moms. YOU COMMIT A CRIME!

Society just became more stupid. Thanks.

Where's a cop with a tazer?

[timbertoes]

I dont think a front plate is required anymore :)

[z-monster]

I would LOVE to see factual proof that police officers are required to fill quotas. I have 3 officers in my neighborhood that I know very well.

All 3 read this and LAWL'd.

[janikphoto]

Originally Posted by Colyn

Quotas are a fact of life.

ALL patrol officers are required to write so many tickets per month.

Why do you think we see police monitoring traffic more so toward the end of the month??

Funny you say that, because the meter maids were writing a million tickets today downtown. I've never seen so many cars with tickets on their windshields before. Last day of the month...

[Crashoran]

Originally Posted by janikphoto

Funny you say that, because the meter maids were writing a million tickets today downtown. I've never seen so many cars with tickets on their windshields before. Last day of the month...

I think this stuff happens at the end of the month just to make all the paranoid people flip out.

[acymc]

Texas law still requires a front plate to be displayed "properly". This case was obviously an isolated incident and the officer just wanted to ID and attitude check out the driver.

Quotas don't exist . . . but focused enforcement because of public request is a fact. This is true in large and small cities. Someone complains about a traffic hazard or situation and supervisors advise their officers to make sure they are visible and enforcing the law.

[MD2595]

Originally Posted by KD5NRH

The reality is that if you'd spend more time looking for them in the act you wouldn't have to come up with an excuse like that.

If you spent all your time going after people who have green shoes on, more criminals would be caught during green shoe stops than anywhere else. That doesn't mean that checking everybody's shoe color is some vital service to the community.

I'll give you a challenge.

I work in a high crime area. Why don't you come ride out with me for 8 hours, and if you can point me to a rape, murder, or burglary in progress, I'll buy you a $500 gift certificate to B&H.

[MD2595]

Originally Posted by ka5txl

It's not odd at all since the Texas Legislature said a few years ago that you don't need to wear a helmet in the state of Texas. It's called freedom to make wise or unwise decisions Now don't get caught riding your schwinn bike around the streets of Dallas sans helmet but on your Harley your ok

I'm with you on this one.

[MD2595]

Originally Posted by tech1961

Yeah and I feel much better when they catch that speeding soccer Mom. That will teach her not speed 5 miles an hour over the limit you law breaking soccer mom you. Heck she was probably in a hurry to get home and watch the news to see who got shot or carjacked in her neighborhood today. You hear that you soccer moms. YOU COMMIT A CRIME!

I work on Sunday and it's a pretty easy day since I'm a supervisor. My guys answer calls for service and I go out on the freeway and run radar. You've got to be doing 20 over to get me to stop you, and if I do, you're getting cited. I think 20 over is more than generous.

I've made most of my felony arrests off traffic stops. You pull someone over and they lie about their name. You play the name game and find out this guy is a parole violator or has a felony warrant. This happened to me running radar in 1993. I stopped a guy and he ended up having a murder warrant out for him.

Bad guys don't like to walk. They can be found in vehicles committing traffic offenses. This is how we catch them. Anyone remember the officer a while back who was running radar on his motorcycle and the guy he stopped had just unknowingly robbed a bank. The guy killed the motor jock.

[Tom]

Cops aren't perfect and neither is every driver on the road. Luckily you have a method to address the citation and the behavior of the officer. Good luck.

And if the OP is to be believed, if this cop wrote a ticket they knew was bogus, the OP is losing their time and money to fight it, because that cop abused their power as a peace officer to meet some number. That is clearly unacceptable. There is no shade of gray there. The plate was on or it wasn't. If the cop wrote a ticket for it being on when it clearly was on as they said "just to meet my number", then they should lose their badge. Its a ticket for a plate today, what is it tomorrow? I know it is a slippery slope, but if we believe the OP, you have to hold the cop to a higher standard, and not writing knowingly bogus tickets is a great start.

I have one officer that works for me that wrote one ticket in a six month period. He recieved no discipline.

Patrol is a whole lot different than traffic, isn't it?

[tech1961]

Originally Posted by MD2595

I work on Sunday and it's a pretty easy day since I'm a supervisor. My guys answer calls for service and I go out on the freeway and run radar. You've got to be doing 20 over to get me to stop you, and if I do, you're getting cited. I think 20 over is more than generous.

I've made most of my felony arrests off traffic stops. You pull someone over and they lie about their name. You play the name game and find out this guy is a parole violator or has a felony warrant. This happened to me running radar in 1993. I stopped a guy and he ended up having a murder warrant out for him.

Bad guys don't like to walk. They can be found in vehicles committing traffic offenses. This is how we catch them. Anyone remember the officer a while back who was running radar on his motorcycle and the guy he stopped had just unknowingly robbed a bank. The guy killed the motor jock.

Patroling areas that are high crime is what I am for, not hiding in the bushes of a low crime upscale neighborhood with a radar gun.

[Daniel Bates]

Let's keep this discussion at least relatively friendly, shall we?

[MD2595]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

And if the OP is to be believed, if this cop wrote a ticket they knew was bogus, the OP is losing their time and money to fight it, because that cop abused their power as a peace officer to meet some number. That is clearly unacceptable. There is no shade of gray there. The plate was on or it wasn't. If the cop wrote a ticket for it being on when it clearly was on as they said "just to meet my number", then they should lose their badge. Its a ticket for a plate today, what is it tomorrow? I know it is a slippery slope, but if we believe the OP, you have to hold the cop to a higher standard, and not writing knowingly bogus tickets is a great start.


Patrol is a whole lot different than traffic, isn't it?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the OP said the "Fort Worth Police" as a whole. There was no mention of just traffic officers.

[MD2595]

Originally Posted by tech1961

Patroling areas that are high crime is what I am for, not hiding in the bushes of a low crime upscale neighborhood with a radar gun.

Running radar in upscale neighborhoods makes for police presence. Would you rather there be NO police presence in nice neighborhoods? That way if someone was to mug some old lady in a parking lot, the police would be guaranteed to be far away from the scene and therefore take longer to respond.

You can't enforce the law in just the low income areas of town. You have to be fair about it. Can't you see the conundrum this would create?

[Brains]

Front plates are required in Texas, and they're a great way to initiate a feeler stop. I've been stopped for it a few times myself, and guess what -- never received a ticket for it. Why? Because I know the law, and I don't throw attitude to the guy doing his job. I've done plenty of stupid stuff over the past 20 years of driving, and been let go more often than I've been ticketed. Attitude and cordiality go a LONG way on a traffic stop. Every ticket I've received, I know exactly what I did, and just sucked it up. That's what court is for, and a good attitude helps there too (e.g. 103 in a 65 isn't a ticket you want to get saucy with the cop OR the DA over).