I'm interested in the Officer's take on this:
I have great respect for many of the jobs Police Agencies perform. They keep good people safe, and are intent on upholding the law. IMO however, an exception to these principles involve traffic violations which are not dangerous, but are simply intended to generate revenue. For example, 20 over the posted limit on a FJR is rarely dangerous, yet technically illegal.
Again IMO, this is primarially a revenue generator for local governments, as opposed to a public safety issue. Am I correct?
This answer is kind of dependent on the agency issuing the citation. For the most part, traffic citations in general are not local revenue generators, and I'll get to that in a minute. Every now and then an agency will issue citations under a city or county ordinance instead of state statute and is able to keep more of the money for themselves, but this can have it's own PITA issues, so it's not done much...at least here. The only agency in NM I know that does this uses the money to fund it's traffic division in its efforts to reduce DWI's and traffic related deaths/injuries. For the most part, agencies writing citations under state statute only make about $.75 per citation; if that. The state obviously gets the money, but it is used to fund courts, traffic safety programs and road maintenance.
Now...About speeding not really being a public safety issue: Please remember that I have not been in the Traffic Divison for about 5 years now. I used to know all these numbers right off the top of my head because I used them all the time in court, but since I do something different now, the actual numbers escape me, but you'll get the idea. THe FBI has tons of statistics on this stuff and your state's traffic safety office should have them too. Another good source is NHTSA...National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
NHTSA WebSite
The number one cause of traffic crashes in the US is excessive speed. The cost of property damage related to traffic crashes in the US is greater than all other types of crime COMBINED...This includes thefts, vandalism, homicide, robberies, white collar crime, computer related fraud, and every other type of crime we have. If I remember right, traffic crashes also cause more injury and death than all other types of crime combined...and as stated before, the number one cause of traffic crashes is.........speed. Speed is also the number one indicator for agressive driving (road rage), which has a nasty tendency to turn into something else.
Part of the problem is perception. You think 20 over the posted limit on a FJR is "rarely dangerous", when in fact, it is almost always dangerous. Except for the rare occasion, speed limits are determined by conditions related to road design, line of sight, roadway population (# of vehicles per hour), location of roadway and cross traffic. Cross traffic and line of sight are two major factors. If the design of the road prevents drivers from seeing far enough ahead of themselves to react to an emergency at 50mph, the speed limit will be reduced to increase reaction time. If there is lots of cross traffic like driveways or county roads intersecting a roadway, the limit has to be reduced to account for the few people that will enter traffic without really paying attention. Remember, the limits are not based on all drivers driving at 100% efficiency. There has to be room for error and again reaction time.
Lets look at it this way. Most traffic investigators figure calculations in Ft/sec as opposed to MPH; so 1mph = 1.4667 ft/sec. Standard reaction time for an ALERT human to react to an emergeny situation is about .75 seconds average. That's the time it takes for your brain to realize something is wrong plus the time it takes for your brain to tell your foot to hit the brake or your arms to turn the wheel. By the time an emergency action is actually put into place, it think 1.5 seconds average have gone by....SO, traveling along at 60mph, you are traveling at 88ft/sec; in 1.5 seconds, you travel 132ft. If you are traveling at 80mph/117.3 ft/sec, you go 176ft in 1.5 secs. That's another 44 ft, or the length of a semi-trailer before you even react and start to slow or move. That does not take into account the increased stopping distance or the space necessary for your machine to manuver. If at 60mph you would have barely missed the emergency, at 80, you would have barreled right through it. How many drivers are really alert and how many are lucky enough to have average reaction times? There is a lot more to it than this, but you get the basic idea...
Then there is this lame assed argument: "Well, if I do wreck the only one I will hurt is me." Those people don't take into account the emergency resources it will take to go clean up their mess. They don't take into account the fact that if they get into a wreck, cops and ambulance personel will have to risk their lives speeding to the scene in an attempt to save a life. They don't think of the lost time other motorists have to endure while the wreck is being investigated and cleaned up, and they absolutely have no idea how much work goes into completing a thorough crash report. They don't take into account the officers that have to make a death notification to their family and how their actions affect other people. They don't take into account how much a person split in half has a negative affect on responders and their family lives. Truth be told, I could give a shit if a 35 year old man crushes himslef on a wall or a tree, but put one child in that car and the perspective changes. You see one dead kid, killed by an adult who was late for work and hauling ass, and you will understand.
Haha...I almost forgot...Your post said, "Upholding the law" and "traffic violations as a whole."
Did you know the best way to reduce the crime rate in an area is to increase traffic enforcement? In areas with heavy traffic enforcement, homicides, rapes, burglaries, robberies and most every other crime decreases. Why? Becasue criminals usually drive to their target location, and the enforcement increases visibility (There was a huge study done on this in LA years ago. Homicides were reduced by something like 75% just by increasing traffic enforcement). Anyone remember how Timothy McVeigh was caught? An Oklahoma state trooper stopped him for not displaying a license plate an hour or two after blowing up the Murrah building. McVeigh had a concealed loaded gun and was arrested for that. He was sitting in a jail cell pending release when investigators realized he was their suspect.
My first shooting came after one of the guys I worked with pulled over a car for 10 over the limit on the freeway. The two occupants had just killed a woman and stole her car. They did not know it was a simple traffic stop; they thought they were caught, so they shot at the officer. One of those guys is dead and the other is serving a life sentence.
I caught Texas's 3rd most wanted for 6mph over the limit. I have recovered stolen cars, stolen guns, missing/runaway kids, and probably close to 4million in cash and drugs due to traffic stops. One time, I was bored and pulled over a kid for a sticker on his windshiled. He had 26grams of Cocaine on him in individual bindles and turned out to be the most prolific Cocaine dealer in one of the local highschools.
We catch more criminals during traffic stops than any other activity we are involved in. The things I have done pale compared to some of the catches my friends have made...and that's just here.
Traffic violations are just like any other crime. We know we are not supposed to do them, and if we do and get caught, there is a consequence. Don't try to blame the system just because you have rationalized your actions to yourself. If the cops don't do traffic enforcement, they might as well stay home.
Hope that answers your question.
