Speeding tickets in Tennessee?

[E4 No More]

1 minute ago, monkeylizard said:

I know. I just don't know why they do. It's clear that we've created a serious conflict of interest in many areas involving police and money.

I can only speak for the jurisdiction that I was a LEO in during the 90's, and contrary to some beliefs the police weren't doing it for their budget. The money from tickets went into the general fund. Then the trend started to add fees to the ticket dedicated to a specific purpose. Example: DUI convictions added fees for compensating the PD for equipment and training for DUI enforcement. I actually wrote the ordnance for the town to pay for our advanced breathalyzer machine that used spectrum analysis to determine BAC. At the time we were still using a Breathalyzer 900A that used photocells and chemical reactants in ampules, IIRC.

[Chucktshoes]

In the interest of clarity, let me say that I never meant to infer that it was for the PD budget. I know those fines are directed to the municipality's general fund. That doesn't change the purpose, just who is behind it. As an example, the DOJ report after the Ferguson riots detailed how the municipal government exerted pressure on the PD to increase ticketing to generate more revenue. Or for another, less contentious example closer to home, Piperton as previously mentioned derives a large amount of its budget from traffic violations.  

The two biggest giveaways that the purpose of the traffic enforcement is for revenue generation are pretty easy to spot. Does the municipality have traffic/petty fines listed as an expected revenue source in its budget. Does the municipality report the infractions to the state or does it just keep the records, and revenue to themselves or "dismiss on court costs"?

 

Here's a great op ed on the subject from last year.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2016/10/26/police-collected-fines-fees-and-forfeitures-how-does-your-city-rank/#6dea23525202

Edited August 3, 2017 by Chucktshoes

[DaveTN]

As someone who has worked traffic, I can say traffic enforcement is not simply for revenue generation. If you live in an area where “real” criminals kill and injure more people than traffic offenders; you should think about moving.

Having said that, certainly traffic fines generate revenue. (Although I doubt it generates more than enforcement costs). What do you guys suggest to fill the void when you do away with traffic ticket fines, increase property taxes?

I also think from what I hear that these camera contracts cost more than cops and squad cars. Maybe traffic enforcement should be left to highly visible Police Officers.

I don’t feel strongly about the fines one way or another but I think I’m okay with letting the violators pay. My wife donated last month.

[Erik88]

A friend of mine recently left law enforcement but he told me that one year while working on Thanksgiving his supervisor told them during the pre-shift meeting that every officer needed to go out and write at least 3 tickets. My friend said something about that being harsh on Thanksgiving and he almost got fired for it.

Every single one of them went out that Thanksgiving morning and wrote 3 tickets. Public safety and all....

Edited August 3, 2017 by Erik88

[Garufa]

11 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

A friend of mine recently left law enforcement but he told me that one year while working on Thanksgiving his supervisor told them during the pre-shift meeting that every officer needed to go out and write at least 3 tickets. My friend said something about that being harsh on Thanksgiving and he almost got fired for it.

Every single one of them went out that Thanksgiving morning and wrote 3 tickets. Public safety and all....

Haven't heard about the quotas in this thread yet that everyone knows about but no one discusses.  

[Ronald_55]

What quotas? There are no quotas. They just hire twice as many cops to patrol the last week of every month. 

[Ugly]

1 hour ago, DaveTN said:

As someone who has worked traffic, I can say traffic enforcement is not simply for revenue generation. If you live in an area where “real” criminals kill and injure more people than traffic offenders; you should think about moving.

Having said that, certainly traffic fines generate revenue. (Although I doubt it generates more than enforcement costs). What do you guys suggest to fill the void when you do away with traffic ticket fines, increase property taxes?

I also think from what I hear that these camera contracts cost more than cops and squad cars. Maybe traffic enforcement should be left to highly visible Police Officers.

I don’t feel strongly about the fines one way or another but I think I’m okay with letting the violators pay. My wife donated last month.

Why would there be a void if no revenue were generated by tickets?

Is that how departments create their budgets? Including expected violations?

If so, the confiscation of people's $ is right on par for the enforcement of our rights. Smh

Its bad business for communities to count on $ that aren't guaranteed. I understand it's the norm these days. My county is 85mil in debt and there are only 57k residents. 

Absolutely irresponsible! Lacking a catastrophe' there's no reason in the world for that except incompetence due to poor planning.

 

[Ronald_55]

29 minutes ago, Ugly said:

Its bad business for communities to count on $ that aren't guaranteed. 

 

Would be kind of like me expecting to win the lotto to pay my bills.

I got a ticket right up next to the KY border once and you could tell that was the city/county's cash cow. 

[Garufa]

4 minutes ago, Ronald_55 said:

Would be kind of like me expecting to win the lotto to pay my bills.

The difference is local PD's and County SD's depend on that revenue and taxpayers will pick up the tab when the books don't balance.  But magically the books sometimes balance.

 

[Chucktshoes]

3 hours ago, DaveTN said:

Having said that, certainly traffic fines generate revenue. (Although I doubt it generates more than enforcement costs). What do you guys suggest to fill the void when you do away with traffic ticket fines, increase property taxes?.

My vote is shrink the government to match the revenues. If government is providing a service folks actually value, they'd be willing to pay for it voluntarily instead of at gunpoint. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

[DaveTN]

3 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

What quotas? There are no quotas. They just hire twice as many cops to patrol the last week of every month. 

Most cops I know don't have a problem  talking about them. We had quotas. They called them "acceptable standards". They were 100 tickets a month for a traffic Officer and 10 a month for a District Officer. Most Traffic Officers wrote far more than that, District Officers was a toss up, some wrote more some wrote hardly any.

 

 

[Sam1]

17 hours ago, DaveTN said:

Most cops I know don't have a problem  talking about them. We had quotas. They called them "acceptable standards". They were 100 tickets a month for a traffic Officer and 10 a month for a District Officer. Most Traffic Officers wrote far more than that, District Officers was a toss up, some wrote more some wrote hardly any.

As much as it pains me to say this, a ticket quota for a cop is no different than one of us being required to repair 100 widgets a week at work, or whatever we do.  I never complain about getting tickets for speeding or parking (that BS incident from 2011 was the only time in my life I've had an issue with tickets).  It's stupid to even argue with the police over them, for the most part they don't randomly pick a car and go pursue it to charge them with something.. and as a regular speeder, I figured that one ticket @ $100 or whatever they are now every few years is well worth the time it saves me over those years.