So tonight I got pulled over for reckless driving.:wtc: I am in a small town where the grandparents live and my cousin wanted to see what my car could do. I was cruising around 40mph when I saw that I was coming up on a light that I was going to miss. I accelerated to about 60mph (in a 45mph zone) and got through the light. Little did I know, there were 3 crown vics sitting in the parking lot right next to the light. I immediately pulled into the parking lot and parked and waited. They slowly pulled over and asked me for the usual license and insurance. I gave them the goods and one said, (in a deep southern accent) "tell me truthfully how fast you were goin and I won't give you a $500 ticket." I thought to myself, "bullshit you won't give me a ticket." So I said, "I thought I was doing the speed limit." :fawk: The three cops asked each other if they knew me and wanted to give me a ticket. None of them knew me obviously because I am not from here. So, they told me to "slow your ass down boy," and left. Just wanted to tell you all about my first encounter with the 5-0.
You are SO lucky you didn't implicate yourself and answer truthfully! Those guys weren't clocking you; they had nothing. Had you said 60: insta-ticket. I hope you wished them happy Thanksgiving.
no but the cops didn't catch him on radar so they will use the reckless driving as a reason because they need no speed for that...
Yeah. Cop saw my radar detector and asked why I had it and I said it was a gift. Lie. :keke: I had just turned it off the day before too so it wasn't on when he saw it. Forgot to add a part: Cop asks,"Why were you driving so fast?" I told him I was late for Thanksgiving dinner. :rofl:It worked too! Cop said he would have given me a ticket if it wasn't Thanksgiving!
Eh, they had nothing on him anyway except maybe failure to obey traffic control device (speeding up to try to make a light can be stretched if you accelerate when it turns yellow). Reckless you have to be recklessly endangering another driver or person. That is a tough one to prove most times unless you really ARE recklessly endangering other motorists.
You're lucky in Roswell they would have done road side sobriety just because it was Thanksgiving, because you accelerated erratically. LOL!
As much as I remember reckless driving is a suspended license, maybe just for under 18 though. Good answer, I would have waited until they got right behind me then pulled over and said the speed limit. Some cops are cool, but most will try to bend the law to get you in trouble.
Having been a cop, I knew quite a few. Most are just there to do a job. They generally have no need to bend the law in order to give someone a ticket. Believe me, there are enough poor drivers and fast drivers out there where you don't have to look hard to find a violation. Why waste your time with a sketchy stop when there are so many out there that are legitimate. I am not saying there are not crummy cops or that all cops know all the laws. There are ass holes in every profession. There are some that WILL try to bend the law. There are some that enjoy giving tickets. But the majority are just out there to do a good job. Believe me I have been there. (Most of the ones I knew gave far more warnings than tickets!)
Being from Chicago and experiencing cops both here and there, Atlanta or atleast the North Suburbs (since this is all I have experienced), is strictly focused on revenue generating police work. I am sure it has allot to do with the low tax base and small budgets for public service. Cops here don't make squat and they have quotas for tickets. There is a huge incentive to write tickets both for cops and their local municipal budgets. It also leaves the public SOL in many cases when there is real police work to be done since half the force it out sitting on the side of the road doing traffic. It is not really the cops fault it is more the departmental incentives that are motivating them to have success. Local governments are mostly to blame since they have created a revenue system that relies heavily on traffic fines to fund public service and line the pockets of attorneys, politicians, judges etc. Inevitably it makes driving very expensive i.e. colossal insurance premiums, fines, accidents and makes an already horrific driving experience, in the epic failure of Atlanta's infrastructure and logistics, even that much more frustrating.
^^ My feelings exactly... Especially here in the SS (Sandy Springs), they are def. here just as a revenue generator.. ask Dana with his tag light infraction. Meanwhile, the area is getting worse and worse with drugs/crime. Go ahead and sell your drugs, attack who you want.. but by God, don't go 6mph over on Roswell Rd....
Same problem in Roswell. My GF(poor thing), bought into a condo complex that allowed people to rent their condo's. Section8=gaurantee'd rent check=ghetto fabulous, almost overnight. She was getting ready to sell and the housing bubble burst. She is stuck. You can literally see po po sitting at the intersection of 400 and Holcomb bridge clocking people doing ramp speeds while just a few thousand yards away there is prostitution, gang banging, armed robbery, burglary, assualt and a unamed number of illegal alliens hanging out at the Gas Station and Waffle House on a daily basis. It is the biggest law enforcement fail I have ever seen in my life. It makes me loose respect for these cops more and more on a daily basis. Especially when I have a loved one that I have to worry about 24/7 knowing that the response time would be effected because half the police force is writing tickets for trivial violations while there is very serious crime that is getting worse on a daily basis, especially with the economy.......Ok I'm done:unamused:Rant over..............
want to talk about meeting quota. i was pulled over on barrett prkwy way back when,when i had my honda for changing lanes with out my turn signal. he wrote me a ticket for that and not wearing my seat belt AND for NO tag light even when i told him that i was rear ended the weekend before and it broke then witch was actually the truth.
But the funny thing is they swear up and down that they dont have quotas They may not like to call it a quota but that is what it is whether it be commission or not. I recieved a loitering ticket on publicly accessable property the cop didnt ask any question he and 3 of his buddies blocked us in and just started writing citations and that is arbatrary because the sergant did not follows the law even thou loitering for inoccent purposes is protected as a civil liberty under the due process clause under the 14th ammendment of the Constitution no matter where you decide to "loiter". I got all the info I need for my case from the "Chicago v Morales" case where the US supeme court ruled that anti loitering laws are unconstitutional because they violate ones Constitutional right to peasably assymble. They wrote 12 citations for loitering that night. "Hall County PD"
I can say that where I worked there was absolutely not quota or incentive (it is absolutely illegal to get any type of bonus or commission). You had to make at least 10 self initiated citizen contacts a night, whether it be helping someone change a tire, writing a warning citation, going out with a suspicious individual, whatever. For me that meant patrolling the neighborhoods and businesses looking for criminals. Our chief actually specifically said NOT to give BS tickets, especially to city residents. As a matter of fact, there was an officer that was relieved of duty for doing just that after being asked multiple times to stop. You can make broad generalizations about a group of people, but until you have been there, you are just going off of your personal experiences and stereotypes. The fact remains there ARE a lot of good cops here and elsewhere. But the ones that will constantly stick in your mind are the dicks. And as stated above, there are plenty of ass holes in every profession.
I agree and that's pretty much why I stated Northern Atlanta specifically Roswell. I have actually thought about doing a research project on: increases or decreases in violent crime, crime against property, and drug crime in relation to traffic offenses. I am very curious to see if criminal activity and arrests have increased or decreased in relation to traffic offenses. The theory I am trying to prove or disapprove is that the resources necessary for violent crime etc. are being diverted to traffic due to revenue. Yes you are right if it can be proven that a municipality is using traffic offenses as a source of revenue that city can loose its' ability to write tickets. Justice would be served ironically!
Well a few things: 1. More drug arrests are made in some form of traffic stop in my experience than any other form of encounter. 2. Drugs are almost always transported into and out of an area in a vehicle 3. Vehicle used in the commission of a felony (such as selling drugs) can be seized 4. No municipality can obtain more than 50% of its revenue from traffic citations (at least not when I was in law enforcement). 5. Increased presence in the form of traffic enforcement (flashing blue lights and sirens) usually leads to a decrease in criminal activity in the area statistically. Sure the big seizures are made at locations (houses, storage, warehouses, businesses, etc), but they usually find out about those locations by finding drugs on someone and "making a deal" with them in order to find where they got the drugs. These initial arrests that lead to the big seizures usually happen on a traffic stop. I am not saying that patrolling neighborhoods and businesses is not important. That is what I spent a good percent of my time doing as I was not a big fan of traffic. But at the same time, traffic enforcement can be productive too. Now in the case of them doing it on a highway and not patrolling at all through neighborhoods, that is BS and I would tell her to call and specifically request increased police activity in the neighborhood. If she does not see it, call and request again....and again...and again till it gets on someone's priority list.
Called the watch commander, left messages for the sergeant, went to community meetings. They sent a car around for a couple of days then nothing. Bottom line they suck ass! Better off moving. That's what I will be doing anyway. They are a traffic enforcement office that's all. They write tickets end of story. If you put the safety of your loved ones or yourself in their hands you are asking for trouble, unless you are a bad guy, then you’re set!