Too many police traffic stops for minor violations

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

We have too many police traffic stops for minor traffic violations which lead to too many confrontations. I think it’s dumb to have police patrolling the streets for minor traffic violations. When I lived in Germany you didn’t see a lot of Polizei roaming the streets and pulling people over...they were there to do real policing...instead, you had cameras up that sent you a ticket for minor violations....I think an approach like that is needed here....but of course I can hear people crying about big brother watching and “freedom” if cameras went up everywhere

[TreasonousBastard]

1. We do in some places. I got a red light ticket in the mail from Nassau County, NY a couple...

of years ago. Camera got me. No points on my license because they didn't know who was driving, but I still had to pay it.

And, yes, there are too many traffic stops. But, what do we do with all those cops sitting on the median all day waiting for speeders and drunks?

[Clash City Rocker]

17. In the Netherlands, they just check your speed with radar and mail you a ticket

Mostly from aircraft, I think. It’s a much more effective way to control speeding, because you don’t know when your speed is being checked, so you have to always be careful.

[ecstatic]

22. What is the average highway/interstate speed limit in the Netherlands?

I like that system. When cops are planted on the side of the road, it creates a hazard as multiple cars slam on their brakes, but some of the speed limits on the interstate in metro Atlanta are unreasonable, in my opinion. 55 miles per hour when the average car is traveling at 70 to 75 mph (80 in left lane)? Cars traveling at 50 or 55 mph end up in more danger as cars start attempting to get around them from the left and right sides.

[Clash City Rocker]

29. And police look for brake lights, it's a dead giveaway

The most amusing to me are the people who see a cop has pulled someone else over and they hit their brakes. Like he’s going to let that guy go to get you.

I think the Netherlands speed limits were comparable to ours, 80-100 KPH, thereabouts.

[ecstatic]

32. I agree about the brakes. I don't brake, and I only buy silver cars

Cops don't seem to notice silver sedans or SUVs.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

27. It just seems like European countries do a lot of things better than us

With a lot of common sense approaches...whether it’s this, health care, education, environmental laws, energy, labor benefits, guns, and other things....but supposedly we are “the greatest country in the world”

[Clash City Rocker]

31. I couldn't agree more

I think the reason the US handles ticketing this way is the notion that you should have to be served notice in person. Which is a nice principle, except it leads to things like unnecessary high speed pursuits, which put other people in danger.

[pecosbob]

2. Police use traffic stops to prey upon us, the criminal justice system's food source.

We are selected by our skin color and our socio-economic class. The poor and disenfranchised have no power and cannot afford to fight back against the system. One interaction with the system is usually all it takes, as we enter the vicious cycle of incarceration, fines and more incarceration. Judges levy enormous fines against the poor so that the prison systems can coerce them to work in prison factories for slave wages.

This wheel need to be broken.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

3. Yea let's let fools drive around any way they want

Do you know how many felonies are stopped every year just from a minor stop?

[ret5hd]

4. How many?

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

7. Of course you won't read it

Last edited Fri Apr 23, 2021, 01:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Wrong article oops

[ret5hd]

8. Yes I will. Right now.

[ret5hd]

11. Hmmm...from a link on the page you posted:

In 2002 an estimated 8.7% of drivers age 16 or older were stopped by police, representing nearly 17 million of the 193 million drivers in the United States.
Among traffic stops of young male drivers in 2002, 11% were physically searched or had their vehicle searched by police. Among these young male drivers who were stopped, blacks (22%) and Hispanics (17%) were searched at higher rates than whites (8%).
White drivers were more likely than both black and Hispanic drivers to be stopped by police for speeding. Subsequent to being stopped for speeding, blacks (78%) and Hispanics (85%) were more likely than whites (70%) to receive a ticket.

[ret5hd]

12. Can you point me to the info I requested.

As you are aware, because you read it, the paper is rather dense and technical, and it is hard to “research” on a phone.

Even a small snip from the paper wold help.

[ret5hd]

18. Hello?

[The Magistrate]

20. You Will Have To Do Better Than That, Sir

Buried in some of the links on that page may be information regarding the number of felonies detected when police halt a driver, but the summaries give no hint at that statistic, the nearest item being a statement that one percent of such stops escalate to physical force of the officer's part. If one of those reports does contain information on the proportion of traffic stops which result in felony arrests, you would do well to cut it out and present it in excerpt.

Because courts have so whittled down a citizen's right to be free of unwarranted search and seizure, police have come to see traffic stops as an opportunity to engage in searches of person and vehicle they could not possibly claim justifiable cause for.

[ret5hd]

21. Thanks. Exactly as I suspected.

[ret5hd]

34. Hello hello? You there?

[ret5hd]

36. I'm starting to think YOU didn't read your link.

Just sayin’.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

6. Guess you didn't read the part about how it works in Germany

And it seems to work very well there..You sound just like a right winger defending failed police policy

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

9. Nope a democrat with

Law enforcement family and friends.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

10. As do I, but

My law enforcement family actually believes in police reform and doesn’t defend the police just because they are police.

Edit - and just because felons are caught during minor traffic stops doesn’t make it good policy

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

13. Not all

I'm not defending all chauvin is guilty imo and the officer that shot the young man yesterday should be held responsible.

[multigraincracker]

23. I was married to a cop, not a good cop.

Here is what I learned. If you ever hear these words from any LEO, " Professional courtesy" that person violates his or her Oath of Office and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. It is the door to corruption. I learned this from a Sheriff who had a PHD in the field of law enforcement.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

14. And there is a difference

Between a minor traffic stop (tailight out, air freshener hanging on rear view mirror, cant see a plate clearly, didn’t come to a full stop, etc) and a fool driving (erratic driving, excessive speeding, etc)....I didn’t say cops didn’t need to be out there, they just don’t need to pull over people for minor crap and spend more time on the fools

[ret5hd]

15. Everybody has "family and friends"...

even predatory cops. Doesn’t make them any more right.

[Caliman73]

37. I also have LE friends and family.

You can accept that your friends and family in LE are decent people, while at the same time understanding that the culture they work in is toxic. It would make their job easier and even safer if they were not being constantly fed that "civilians" are sheep and they are the "sheepdogs". That they need to be scared when doing their job.

The OP is correct. Crime has been trending downward for decades, but the perception is that times are scarier and more dangerous. Those two things are mutually exclusive. Police are not immune to believing the perception fed by the media. The problem is that aggressive policing and a justice system that is racially skewed, makes things more difficult for police because it creates fear, mistrust, and animosity toward police.

[NurseJackie]

5. Yes! More cameras!! I'm VERY MUCH in favor of that.

Not only speed and red-light cameras... but CCTV system like the one in London.

Something as expansive as that would have made a big difference how the insurrection was tracked, responded-to, handled (and prosecuted).

[multigraincracker]

24. That along with cops that look like the community they serve.

How would a "White" community feel if most of the cops were of a different skin color?

[Mariana]

16. Cameras at traffic lights are already in use in many places in the US.

The big problem with these is that in many places, the cameras didn't generate as many tickets (read: revenue) as officials expected and wished to see. Some of them shortened the yellow light times at those intersections, to make it much more difficult for drivers to clear the intersection before the lights turned red. In some cases, collisions actually increased after this, because drivers had no choice but to slam on their brakes to stop in time to avoid a ticket, making them more likely to get hit from behind. They intentionally made the intersections less safe so the cameras would issue more tickets.

[TheBlackAdder]

25. In NJ, they were pulled down because the contractor and towns were gaming the system to drive fines.

.

US DOT Code, as specified in the DOT's Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices, states that traffic Yellow Lights must be AT LEAST one second per every 10 MPH on the roadway. So if you are on a road with a Speed Limit of 45MPH, the Yellow Light must be AT LEAST 4.5 seconds.

Towns were reducing this to 3.5 seconds. This made people either race though a yellow or jam on their brakes. The result was a lot of rear-end accidents at these intersections. Also, a result was millions of extra revenue dollars for the town and contractor. What I did not know what the extent of it. I called my town's road department and found out the following:

Green, Yellow & Red light timings can be:

1) Remotely changed via a laptop. Reasonable.

2) Changed for various times of days and traffic flows. Reasonable.

3) Changed to vary the timings every so often, in intervals or at random. WTF!

4) Changed when the operator sees a vehicle approaching or sitting at a traffic light. WTF!

5) It's optional whether these changes are logged or not.


Yes, they can pause the red light to get people to run it, they can shorten the yellow light to get more red-light violations, and they can do it so randomly that no one would be the wiser, unless you put up a video camera and record the light behaviors and time each one.

Now, the question is, who can control these light timings? Is is just the highway or road departments. Can the police do it at the station or can the police do it in their police cars?

.

[ChazII]

19. Cameras are used in several cities

here in the Phoenix area.

[ripcord]

26. One way not to get stopped for minor traffic violations is not to commit them

I haven't had a ticket in over 25 years, for some reason people think the traffic laws are a suggestion and are even insulted when stopped, don't be this person.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

28. Your white privilege is showing

There is a difference between a white lady being pulled over for texting and a black man being pulled over for an air freshener

[Arazi]

30. What infraction did Lt Caron Nazario commit that warranted getting pulled over?

If you don't understand the Defund the Police movement, I'm happy to help explain.

This article on racial profiling by police is 22 years old! Nothing's changed.

https://www.aclu.org/report/driving-while-black-racial-profiling-our-nations-highways

[ecstatic]

33. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

[Mysterian]

35. I totally support speed cameras and getting a ticket in the mail

That stuff works good in Germany.

Traffic cops obviously do nothing to get people to drive the speed limit.

[marie999]

38. I find having disabled veteran's plate keeps me from getting tickets.

[ProfessorGAC]

39. Rec'd

I agree. Violation gets recorded, put into the computer, ticket gets mailed. Violator has option to pay by mail.
No face to face confrontation at any point in the chain.
Then, if it's contested it can be dine online. If unresolved, then it goes to traffic court, where judges control the environment and nobody gets shot, I mean tazed, I mean choked, I mean...