No More TIcket Quotas in Florida
August 25, 2010 | in The Daily DriveFor a while now on this blog, I have been speculating on whether or not police departments write tickets in the name of safety or for revenue.
Look, speed is one of the leading causes of accidents, it does not take a lot of it to cause a problem and the faster you are traveling, the more likely you are to get seriously hurt. Speed is a safety issue, so I have no problem with the officers of the law enforcing speed limits.
It is an effective way to change behavior and let’s face it, without them, my company does not have a point reduction driver safety class, a traffic school for Florida and most likely we would not have a company driver training program either.
That being said, every now and then, you wonder – is there a quota? STEPS – a program administered by NHTSA, actually provided grant money to municipalities to enforce speed limits in areas KNOWN in the municipality to have fatalities related to speed. It increased the number of hours officers were patrolling in municipalities and therefore, the number of tickets.
I recently read an article which was as close to official admission there are an expected number of traffic tickets due to their revenue impact. In Chicago, the Director of Revenue was actually suspended after writing an email to police officers actually berating them for not writing enough traffic tickets and the negative impact the lack of tickets was having on city coffers.
At the end of the day, slowing down is the best alternative to avoid a speeding ticket. Obey the laws, you will not have to pay fines. But this does make your shake your head, in particular with the economic times as they are.
So if you do get a ticket, just click it with DefensiveDriving.com, we will serve as your point reduction and traffic dismissal course, whether you are in Delaware, Indiana, Texas, New York, Florida, New Jersey or California, we have you covered.
Drive Safely and slow down!
