Make it thru national "Make your quota" day?

Whilst making my rounds today I traveled thru 7 cities and quite a bit of rural country and it seemed that over every hilltop and around every corner was one or more cops running radar or laser.

I had 3 people picked off from either right in front of or right behind me. I was just as guilty as them but for some reason the gods smiled on me and someone else got the ticket.

I say guilty but in one city they apparently have just lowered the speed limit to 30 on all of their streets, even 4 lane divided hwy types so several times I was going 35. I was going 35 on the same road that 45 was the speed limit last week.

On at least 3 spots they were loaded up with 3 or more cop cars and motorcycles.

I wish someone had told me it was National Make Your Quota Day and I'd have brought my Valentine 1. It's in the glove box now for my trip out tomorrow. I sure hope it was just a one day holiday.

Interesting, I saw a bunch of traffic stops tonight as well and we are nowhere near each other.

The best part was on the Interstate, when I noticed an SUV doing about 100 mph flying up behind me. I accelerated a bit to pass two semis in the slow lane, and then went back to the slow lane...and got a mirror full of blue lights for my trouble.

Thankfully, he didn't stop me, but it is a bit irritating. I can just imagine the lecture the cop would've given: "You need to drive the speed limit in your well-maintained car, while my massive Durango is near top speed and that's just fine because of this tin star on my shirt."

Just 10 years ago, I really wanted to be a police officer, now you couldn't pay me enough to do the job.

It's funny this thread popped up now, I just ordered a new radar detector.

I figured my luck with the $30 Cobra wouldn't last forever, so I stepped up to a Bel RX65. They're on sale on Amazon right now.

The only LEOs I've seen lately were either at the gas station picking up another cup of coffee so they could stay awake at 3AM or they were directing traffic around a fire. I've been driving more than usual and I've been seeing fewer than usual. Maybe they're migratory creatures?

Tom, you're still running the CB, right? I feel that those are better than a radar detector any day of the week.

Yep, of course. And a scanner and a jammer...

I'd say detectors and CBs are equal, but that's hugely dependent on where you live.

Not much CB activity on the roads where I live.

Cross your fingers and wish me luck, I'm headin' out again. Hopefully yesterday was a fluke and all the cops are at the donut stand today.

Tons of cops out last night in MN too. Thankfully the Taurus doesn't raise too many eyebrows.

Somebody on here once posted about always asking specifically for a beige Cavalier when he rented a car, the idea being that nobody in the history of the world has ever seen a beige Cavalier pulled over for a little talk with a government agency.

Well, my local Discount lot had a beige Cruze the other day. The torch has been passed.

I had a beige corolla and got pulled over plenty.... and I know of at least one person with a beige Cavalier that used to get speeding tickets all the time. But have I ever seen that in person? No.

Funniest line I ever heard about quotas...

"No, I don't have a quota, I can write as many tickets as I want."

I received a "red light" photo ticket in the mail the other day. Grrrrrrr.

$158.00 ----For turning right on a red. No I didn't come to a complete stop.....I actually just sort of paused, (in a rt. hand turn lane) so I guess technically I broke the law.

damn big brother

I saw lots of cops in IL yesterday too. Actually, now that I think about it, this morning too. But nobody ever expects that grandma's beige Buick might be doing anything but 10 below the limit.

For some reason I have seen a lot of light colored 07-10 Chrysler Sebrings involved in burglaries and thefts lately. Makes me wonder if criminals buy those cars because Chrysler dealers are giving them away or if the cars are so dreadful they are driving people to a life of crime.

And can everybody stop being easy pickings. Maybe folks could stop helping police write tickets by refraining from breaking traffic laws.

Funny, I drove over 700 miles that day all across the mid-west and I think I saw two smokeys total. Here's a tip - Don't speed. That's what race tracks are for.

bravenrace wrote: Funny, I drove over 700 miles that day all across the mid-west and I think I saw two smokeys total. Here's a tip - Don't speed. That's what race tracks are for.

+1... someone in my office got a speeding ticket on his way to a jobsite yesterday, wayy too much of a company man if you ask me, unless my job is on the line that day, no way I'm going over the speed limit while I'm 'on the clock'.

Anyway, the coworker is 29 and has a evo, and a few speeding tickets over the years... ouch! I told him car insurance isn't too bad when you have a clean record.

bravenrace wrote: Here's a tip - Don't speed. That's what race tracks are for.

Such an assinine statement. (misspelling on purpose because I wanted to put emphasis on the first syllable)

You must have missed the part of my original post where one town has just lowered their speed limits across the board and a 4 lane divided road who's speed limit was 45 last week is now 30 mph.

There are places and situations where unless you drive using your cruise control you will inadvertently speed.

It wasn't as bad on day #2 as day #1 but still worse than normal. I usually see 2-3 cops "working" a week and they are usually in the same areas - typically wide open areas of the freeway on the fringe of things that have plenty of small hills they can hide behind. But this week I have been seeing 2-3 "working" cops an hour and many of these areas have been staffed to the limit with 3-4 cops at each location to make sure no evil bad doers slips through.

Don't know what is going on, but something is afoot. This is too radical a departure from the norm.

Does anyone know either from experince or a reliable source if the traffic cops do in fact have ticket quotas? How about arrest quotas? Just a couple of questions I've always wondered about and not known for sure.

I will answer that question for anyone that is curious. Not that it will convince or inform anyone that has already made up their mind about police. This answer is based on my experience working in a larger city. Small towns are very different and very political.

No, there are not ticket or arrest quotas. Rather I will say that bosses want to prove that you worked. What that means is that you better have something to put down on your worksheet at the end of the night to prove you worked. For a beat cop that could be tickets, arrests, offense reports, accident reports, tire changing for old ladies, etc. For a traffic cop that means they better meet the traffic unit average of 16 citations, or 4 accident reports, or 2 DWIs or so per day if they want to stay in traffic. If an officer repeatedly turns in blank worksheets with no valid reason and pisses off the Sgt by making him look bad in front of his Lt. Then its guaranteed that they will lose their shift, days off, and/or approval to work part time jobs. I have seen officers with day shift and weekends off on the nice side of town with a regular part time job get sent to the barrio midnights with midweek days off and restricted from part time jobs.

I have had and have numerous police friends and if they don't turn in X amount of work then as Ojala says they get into deep doo doo. Hence the "quota" of X tickets.

And then there are the over zealous types. The ones that hide behind signs and turn in 4-5 time the quota.

On top of that you have the "pushes" that occassionally come down disguised as making the weekend, holiday or stretch of road safer.

At the moment with tax revenues down the city "suggests" that if certain revenues don't come in then "certain" services will have to be cut.

Thanks guys.

So there is and there isn't a quota. That makes sense

Graefin10 wrote: Thanks guys. So there is and there isn't a quota. That makes sense

No, there are just people with a good work ethic.

Such an assinine statement. (misspelling on purpose because I wanted to put emphasis on the first syllable)

Thanks. I feel the same way about you and your post.
I didn't miss anything in your post. So you don't read road signs - Smart!
I put 4800 miles on my car in 12 days recently, including the day you mentioned. Mostly through small west and midwest towns, some of which had unreasonably low speed limits. If you actually read the speed limit signs, it's not a problem. But just for the record, I didn't see any more cops on that day than on any other day. YMMMV Because I know a few cops, I also know that in Mayfield Village, Akron, Tallmadge, Cleveland and Green Ohio, there aren't and never have been any quotas. I don't know about anywhere else.

Ojala wrote: I have seen officers with day shift and weekends off on the nice side of town with a regular part time job get sent to the barrio midnights with midweek days off and restricted from part time jobs.

Wow. That sounds almost like corporate-level punishment. Were they really shirking, or was the "nice" side of town really that clean?

(I'm not an LEO, but have had several as friends..and I'm living with a cop's daughter..who is now a detention officer.)

Spent most of the weekend in not-so-urban VA. Only saw one Kojak with a Kodak.

Graefin10 wrote: Thanks guys. So there is and there isn't a quota. That makes sense

Not a quota by having the Sarge come out and say, "..you've all got to write x many tickets today!.."

But yes, they have to stay in the thick of the "bell curve" of what all officers write to stay in Sarge's good graces (like Ojala said, to preserve perks..and since they don't make much money, those perks are important...less dangerous areas to patrol, opportunities to "moonlight").

It's complicated.

Again, I am not an LEO...just know a bunch of em, and living with a cop's daughter. You wanna know embarassment? Try getting pulled over by your g/f's dad. Damn, I'm so happy that man got promoted..