Why are cops more interested in givng out tickets than catching real criminals?

Milo F

I donâ€™t think that the general public realizes that the officers on the street issuing violations for motor vehicle offenses are the backbone of all police agencies. Traffic enforcement is just one of their many jobs but it should be noted that stopping cars for traffic violations often times leads to other arrests, such as driving while intoxicated, possession of drugs, or possession of weapons are made not to mention that the traffice enforcement that youâ€™re talking about prevents accidents and protects lives. Traffic enforcement is a double edge sword in that if you do it youâ€™re not out there â€˜fighting the real crimeâ€™ but if you donâ€™t do it people will *****, moan and complain that cars are speeding all over the place, crashes would inevitably increase and everyone would wonder why are the police arenâ€™t doing their job.
Traffic enforcement is proactive police work and unfortunately most crimes are reactive which means that the police can only react to the crime after it has been committed. It would be nice if the police had ESP and could anticipate criminal activity in advance but unfortunately we donâ€™t possess that power.
The truth of the matter is the officers that you criticize are the eyes and ears of the rest of the police department. Statistically more crimes are solved by the first responding officers (and not the detectives) who observe, listen, and protect the crime scene. The patrol officer is the first responder whenever something serious occurs. You want to know the psychological motivations of an officer? They often times put their life on the line to protect your life and when a call comes in, whether violence is involved or not they rush to the scene while others people have to choice to run and hide and often times they stand face to face with individuals that would frighten the life out of normal people.
I canâ€™t imagine how many lives have been saved by the police over the years not only because they intervened in violent cases but because they are often times first responders where a person was in need of medical assistance.
In 2005 alone, 155 police officers paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect people like you.
You want to know what itâ€™s like â€˜psychologically to be a cop?â€™ Well one minute youâ€™re giving out tickets and the next youâ€™re at a domestic dispute where some guy has just punched the crap out of his wife. The police officer canâ€™t run, and wonâ€™t run away to leave you to fend for yourself but will do whatever is necessary to arrest that individual. An hour later youâ€™re taking a complaint about a missing person and then rushing to a bank alarm where you donâ€™t know if you might come face to face with a bank robber who will have no problem putting a bullet in you to make his get away or if itâ€™s just a false alarm. For eight to twelve hours a day an officer will from one call to the next and never know what to expect. What would that do to you psychologically?
Iâ€™ve seen what the police do because Iâ€™ve been there as one of them for twenty-five years. Iâ€™ve faced people with guns and knives. Iâ€™ve broken up more fights than I can remember. Iâ€™ve investigated so many car accidents that I long ago lost count. Once we had a restaurant explode in my town from a gas leak and on my hands and knees I worked my way across the top the debris while pockets of gas continued to explode beneath me pulling out the survivors.
How many times have you done something like that? How many times in your life have you saved another personâ€™s life? How many times have you put yourself in harms way to protect someone?
For you to say that the police are giving out tickets simply to avoid confrontation is an insult to police officers all over the world. When they are needed they rush to the scene and always, always put the citizen first.
Itâ€™s obvious that youâ€™ve never been in a situation where youâ€™ve really needed the police otherwise you wouldnâ€™t be asking such a stupid question but one day when you or a family member or a friend does need us (and statistically it will happen) I want you to think back to the question that you asked and then ask yourself, realistically who else could you have called that would have rushed to your aide to protect you, help you or serve you when no one else could.

dh1977

Three reasons. One, they enforce laws no matter how big or small. That's what they are paid to do. Two, there are specific Officers assigned to traffic duty and nothing else. Three, they catch a lot of serious criminals by doing minor traffic stops. Example. In Texas, a man was pulled over for a broken tail light. Because this minor violation was not overlooked, the driver (who had been wanted in Indiana for murdering a college professor and dumping his body in a river) was finally arrested and extradited back to Indiana to stand trial. This is not an uncommon occurrence.

Mickey Mouse Spears

Because they CAN catch real criminals that way. Don't you ever watch Court TV or Cops?

Do you expect cops to peek behind bushes all the time and wait for crimes to happen? It's easier to watch for smaller crimes (traffic violations, or turnstyle jumping) and uncover the bigger crimes while doing so. There are detectives doing the stuff you're thinking about.

Final Frontier

There is more to a police force then what you see on the street. There are numerous types of detectives, forensic specialists, etc. They are working for you. The cops on the street are providing a necessary function of society. Just because you see them pulling people over or just sitting in their cars, does not mean that is all that they do.

robbocop

That is the way that a lot of "real criminals" are caught. Serial Killer Ted Bundy was caught when a police officer stopped him for a routine traffic violation in Pensacola Florida. Terry Rudolph, who evaded the FBI for years was apprehended by a rookie police officer for dumpster-diving. Millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs and drug proceeds are found by police on traffic stops every year.

Police encounter "real criminals" or "scary situations" periodically. In the meantime, we don't need to just sit around and do nothing until the next "real criminal" situation comes along. Also there are different levels of police work. There are those officers who are assigned to traffic detail and that is their primary duty. There are those who are assigned as homicide detectives, vice squads, regular patrol, and the list goes on. Highway Patrol, for example, usually have the primary job as traffic law enforcers. They work mostly vehicle accidents and enforce traffic laws on the highway. That is their primary job and that is what they mostly do.

As far as being afraid of "scary situations"; more police officers are killed on traffic stops than any other type call. This is one of the most dangerous aspects of our job. We encounter more "dangerous criminals" here than anywhere else, and what makes it so dangerous is that we usually do not know if the occupant of a vehicle is a dangerous criminal, or just some average Joe on his way to work.

bostonianinmo

The problem is your perspective, not what the cops are actually doing.

When driving around you are more likely interacting with traffic cops than anyone else in the police department. It's their JOB to issue citiations for driving offenses, not track down burglars, rapists, murders, drug dealers (unless you'd dumb enough to display when stopped for speeding on the Queenway) and other social misfits. There are detectives who work those crimes and generally do a pretty good job at it.

If a traffic cop horned in on the drug squad or homicide he'd probably get tossed off of the force for not doing HIS job, which is traffic enforcement.

And as another responder correctly pointed out, "simple" traffic stops DO reveal other more serious crimes in progress and / or lead to the apprehension of dangerous crimminals. Policing is synergistic effort. The average citizen only sees 5% of the total work most of the time.

lebreb17

I don't know about cops in Canada but I'm guessing they're not much different than cops in the U.S. where I work.

Writing tickets is not their sole concern, believe me.
There are officers who happen to enjoy working traffic
and believe they are doing their part to help keep the
public highways safer for all of us. Sometimes, officers are assigned to "traffic" and have no choice but to work in that area. Other times, they might work traffic just to give themselves a different "scene" as occasionally it actually gets boring out there.

Real dangerous criminals are the subject of scrutiny by the police but you don't readily see
that because in many cases those people are
taken off the streets through the use of "investigations." And because cops don't want the
bad guys to know that they are coming close to
being arrested, the cops try to remain as sneaky
as they can when conducting those "investigations" so that they don't "tip their hand" and have the
bad guys leave the area and thus make it much
more difficult to find them.

This was the short answer to your questionand I
hope that it might give you a little better understanding of how cops work and why they do what they do.

dreamcandy115

Cops are not out to get you. In fact, they have a lot of procedures, etc. that they have to go through. Writing tickets is not actually worth their time if they are looking for somethign easy to do. NOTHING is easy. Catching criminals is jus ta part of the deal. Besides, writing tickets is supposed to help deter people from dangerous situations. Running a red light- no biggie?? What if you are crossing an intersection when you get slammed by someone running red? Or you jaywalk and a car comes out of no where? You think that is rare? It's not. Give cops a break. Help them to help you. They're trying to do their jobs to keep you safe and what you people actually do is make it harder for them. Then you have the nerve to criticize them?? Something's not quite right. We have to be better educated citizens.

California Street Cop

I pull people over all night long for petty vehicle code violations. I don't give a damn what race they are or what they look like. Guess what. I nab a fair amount of crack and meth heads, crack and meth dealers, scumbags with warrants, scumbags in possession of stolen items/paraphernalia/burglary tools and faaaaar too many idiots driving on suspended licenses among other criminals.

Also, I don't have any ticket quotas. I haven't written a cite in 2 months.

melissaw77

1. They are traffic cops.
2. Detectives, and Vice cops actually do the work on sting operations, and going after real criminals.

The average police officers job is to look for traffic violations, and crime they see during there shift. The tickets bring in state revenue, and they are supposed to give out so many tickets per week.

bluwvrdr

stats...........................when i asked my neighborhood watch Sargent about my neighbors parking across the sidewalk in their driveways, he said call it in. everyone likes to boost their stats. he was only half joking. if there is nothing else going on, they will rack up 'points' that way.

another point.....we have a problem withstreet vendors and they are a nuisance. they are illegal. if we report them, their carts are confiscated. they break health code violations, operating with out permits, etc.............our detectives want them gone because they've been targets of robberies and may one day be a homicide. everyone has their job to do for whatever reason. quit whining about why and thank a peace officer instead.

crusader rabbitt

It's better to write tickets than to clean up the aftermath of an accident caused by speeding.
Having to make those death notifications in person is incentive enough to try to prevent all of the accidents I can.

Guerrilla M

It's because Canada has descended into the pits of liberalism.

shdwkat2099

Once again all the good answers are already given way before I show up!
but just to tag onto what Robbocop said, a routine traffic stop is how the Oklahoma City bomber was caught. he was actually in custody already due to this traffic stop when they started looking for him for the bombing.
All due to an alert traffic cop that "had nothing better to do".

charlsyeh

where in the world do you get that?cops do not like to right citations unlees someone does something blatant

Justice Agent

Kudos to the man who said revenue....in addition, though, police use ticket writing to find other things like drugs or stolen cars. They are trained to look beyond the traffic ticket. Just remember, every dog has his day, and real criminals do get caught. A traffic cop has a specific duty to write tickets TO ENSURE YOUR SAFETY AND THE SAFETY OF OTHERS. If you cannot drive correctly then get off the road. Dangerous criminals are not going free. If they were, then explain prison overcrowding. P.S.,,,,most serious criminals are brought into the system by cops who just wanted to write them a simple traffic ticket...............

T-Bone35

Her additional details state "lol you don't even know me" Yet she knows each and every cop and just how scared they are! Amazing! How is it that the prisons are over populated and filled with violent criminals? (Drugk-don't answer that, I'm sure they were all framed) I guess they just turned themselves in! I'm sorry the speeding ticket you got pissed you off and caused you to stereotype groups of people.

PM4

Sometimes, when a cop is out looking for traffic violations, they will end up finding someone who has a warrant for other things.

Traffic enforcement "tickets" are important too. Look at the all the idiots you see on the road. I've stopped people for speeding and found out they were piss drunk....over 2X the legal limit.

Also, some cops are in special units like traffic in which their job is to write tickets.

Steven C

because if you are speeding your not a fake criminal.

Rick C

The money the city gets from the tickets is how the police get paid. This revenue is why cities are able to put and keep cops on the street. I, m sure the money is used for other purposes also, just like taxes.
On a personal note here, i don,t personaly agree with the so called QUOTAS that alot of them are supposed and sometimes pressured to meet in a month. This would account for alot of the often petty types of tickets, especialy towards the end of the month.

quntmphys238

Some of it the work environment. Like any job, the better you do, the more likely you are to get promoted. Well, the sad fact is that a cop with one incident handled in a month looks like a slacker compared to the cop with a dozen incidents handled in the same month, even if the one incident was tracking down and arresting a suspect and the dozen incidents were traffic citations. How much did revenue did each officer generate for the county--cause where I live, all fees go to the county even when a city officer wrote the ticket. Any government agency or department likes having better funds. So, even if there isn't a real quota--and I don't think there is an agency that truly has any--the officer with more incidents looks to be more on the job. Sad, but that's politics for ya.

Also, traffic offenders are a serious concern. As far as US highways go, there are approximately 42,000 traffic deaths per year. A large part of those can be directly attributed to excessive speed and/or intoxication. I can't count how many tickets I have received in my life [even as the son of a local PD SGT], but I know I deserved every one of them cause I was, in fact, speeding. Well, okay all except for that one where I was doing 31 in a 25MPH section of road. :P
But, I was 16 and cops love citing teenagers.
Also, in some towns, there just may be nothing else for the cops to do. In my city, we'd look at people funny if they called the PD for a cop to come out and get the dead squirrel out of their driveway, or I'd simply hang up on them and try to remember to laugh AFTER I hung up. [I was a 911 operator/dispatcher for 8 years.] But in a town just to the south of us, that's a complaint that will get an officer dispatched.

VISIONQUEST

Its all about the money.

quackpotwatcher

makes revenue for local money hungry municipalities

FallingToSafety

Maybe the more dangerous criminals are better at hiding and being discreet so that's why it's harder for cops to catch them at the act. But when somebody jaywalks, or goes over the speed limit that person is just being stupid and by being stupid they let themselves get caught easily cos they're careless while more dangerous criminals might plan out their acts; thus, making it more difficult for cops to catch them.

Borneopet

Because they each have a quota to fill to help bringing in $, ie minimum tickets per month.

Of course in my country Malaysia, its because they can get more $ for themselves through bribery

Country leaders are corrupted anyway so why not the police too.

hobo bob

because they have ticket quotas. But cops on different viechals have different jobs. Motorcycle cops pay very good attantion to the road and are traffic cops and give out most tickets. Cops in cars are too lasy to get out or something and only give u a ticket if u in a car and run a red light or something. Besides that, real criminals arent that common as people who break minor traffic laws.

nastymindedboy

Cops are just as lazy as anyone else is, I guess.

Paul P

There is nothing psychological about it. They don't go to work and thing 'what do i feel like doing today when I'm out patroling. They are assigned to do certain tasks, and also, they have QUOTAS. They HAVE to write a certain number of tickets every month. Also, catching criminals does not make any money for the government. It actually costs money because they have to pay to run the courts, and also all of the costs of running a jail. If they write people tickets they are basically just out collecting money. This money gives them their pay check, new gadgets, guns, patrol cars, you name it. They are money generators for the government. Yep, pretty ******.

Hugh IV_XX

Its easier to catch petty criminals. Our entire society is wrapped up in whats the easiest way to do things. Including the po po.

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