Can you print 93,750 traffic tickets?

One Georgia police department has a request for bids on 93,750 traffic tickets. Not 93,751 or 95,000 or (heaven forbid, fewer doughnuts) 100,000.

If you're in the traffic ticket printing business, check it out. If you're pitching electronic tickets, these folks aren't a good prospect.

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New Hampshire is moving to requiring a pretrial conference with a prosecutor before you can get a traffic ticket trial.  Partially deployed now, the new policy will go statewide by the end of the year.

If you're looking for a deal, this is good news.

If you think you're not guilty, be careful what you say to the prosecutor--he's not your friend. Don't admit you did anything wrong.


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Town cuts traffic tickets 84%

Fewer tickets, less accidents

A Northern California city reduced issuing traffic tickets by 84%--and accidents fell 7%.

Rather than concentrating on issuing tickets, the police chief wants his officers to focus on long term solutions. If collisions are an issue at this location, what can we do about that? A median? A signal? Solving problems, he argues, is more important than writing tickets.

A not so good excuse

Another excuse that didn't work. A teenager tried to convince the officer she was pregnant and needed to get to the hospital right now. After she was arrested for obstruction of justice, the baby turned out to be a wool sweater.

A doctor told a motorcycle cop of my acquaintance pretty much the same thing. He was speeding because he was needed at the hospital for an urgent operation. "Go! Go!" the cop urged him. The motorcycle followed the doctor. They were in the hospital elevator before the doc gave it up. The officer walked back outside with him and wrote the citation.

Double jeopardy?

Interesting question on Yahoo Answers. He gets a ticket for tinted windshield and pays it. Does the double jeopardy clause of the US Constitution protect him from getting such a ticket again?

No--the next ticket would be for a separate offense. (The clause protects against being prosecuted twice for the same crime ("fact pattern")--not for breaking the same law twice.) But it's good that somebody's reading the Constitution and thinking about it.

Noted

The officer was about to write a simple traffic ticket when the 14 years old passenger piped up the driver had raped her. Things got a little more complicated after that.

Houston has reportedly joined Los Angeles in kicking out red light ticket cameras.


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Don't try this at home

Not a good way to get out of a ticket

Officers often don't ticket other officers.

The key part to this strategy is you have to really be a cop. One woman allegedly claimed to be, though she refused to show department ID and couldn't decide whether she worked for the local PD or the CIA.

She got her ticket--along with being arrested for impersonating a police officer.

Weird Ticket?

Kuwait denies reports one of its police officer issued a ticket for bad breath and impounded the car for 2 months.

The driver is said to have agreed with the officer about the breath. (Never confess if you want to go to court later.)

One strike--you're out

Driving past a school bus with flashing red lights will get you more than a ticket in Oklahoma. They'll suspend your license. If you're smoking too in a school zone, they'll probably shoot you.


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It's back ...............

The fake "you got a ticket in New York" email we first reported July 8 is apparently making the rounds again.

Even the Wall Street Journal ran a story.

Key advice: don't download the ticket.


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Be careful out there.

Two goals in a traffic stop

Be very careful around police officers. Most are good people. But in 2006, three Portland, Oregon cops allegedly beat a man to death (his ribs were broken in 27 places.) Nobody lost his job over the "incident."

This July in Fullerton, California, six officers reportedly did the same thing. It took almost a month for the department to put the cops involved on administrative leave. As the father of the Fullerton victim noted, if I'd killed a man like that, I'd be so far behind bars, you couldn't find me.

In 2010, the US Department of Justice brought 52 criminal civil rights cases against cops--the most in the ten years they've been keeping track.

You have 2 goals in a traffic stop:

(1) not saying anything the officer can use against you in court

(2) getting away (alive) as quickly as possible.

It's not who you know--it's who you are

Glancing out the window of a New York restaurant, singer Aretha Franklin noticed her car being given a parking ticket. Rushing out, she was able to trade a song (and autographed envelope) for no ticket.

In New Jersey, TV star Mike Sorrentino (Jersey Shore) got out of a ticket after giving the cop an autograph. The officer may face discipline for letting Sorrentino go.


You think you've got problems?

One woman has a 30 years old phone number. Then the courthouse added a phone number--one digit off from hers. She's fielding hundreds of misdialed calls. When she put a message on the answering machine saying she's not the court, people left messages anyway.


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Don't wait until you see the judge

Hit 'em with a subpoena

See the officer's paperwork for the first time in court, this attorney apparently suggests. Maybe that works for someone with his experience. But you don't have that. You're going to need time to examine and evaluate. The judge, with a packed courtroom, isn't going to give you many seconds.

The better way: get a subpoena duces tecum served on the custodian of records for whatever paperwork or video you're looking for. Do this long before trial. Check with the clerk's office for the form and local rules.

Tearing up the ticket didn't work

Guy is idling his car on the street in front of his house. Court writes him a ticket.

Guy tears the ticket up and throws it at the officer. Cop arrests the guy.

On what charge is uncertain. While technically throwing the paper at the officer is an assault and battery, it seems sort of wussy for the officer to pursue it. (You can imagine his sergeant asking, "Gee, you had confetti coming at you. Why didn't you shoot him?")

At this point, the family piles out of the house and attacks the officer, Mom jumping onto his back.

What happened to the cop saying "Have a nice day" and driving away?

Can you beat this? She's gotten 45 tickets.

A Pennsylvania woman was pulled over for allegedly passing a school bus. The officer determined she was driving on a license suspended 5 years ago and had 45 outstanding traffic tickets. She received 30 days jail time.


-----the right way to beat a traffic ticket. Only 99 cents!

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Cops have problems too

New York City is keeping a closer eye on how its officers perform in court. The city is in the midst of a scandal that suggests officers fixed tickets by not showing up in court or by performing poorly in the courtroom.

10 more cops in Los Angeles sue the department, alleging quotas. Could they be inspired by the two of their brethren who earlier won $2 million from the city on this charge?


---99 cents ebook and freearticles

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