I have a friend who is a cop (I work on his computer) and we started talking. Maybe this is common knowledge, but Fairfax county cops have no quota to meet like the hicks down in sourthern, VA. This makes getting a ticket a lot less likely here. He also said that he in genenral hates writing tickets and in general will just give a warning. He also said that usually you'll need to be going 10-15 over at least in order to get pulled over, but of course that depends on the cop.

Be careful on the Fairfax County Parkway (Near where it becomes Franconia-Springfield), my friend was going 20 over AND got a really pissed off cop. She begged, "just give me a warning" but he said "What am I supposed to say the family of the kid who you hit, 'oh I just gave her a warning?!?'"

Be careful. I'd post more but I have to go out driving. Wish me luck.

I'd believe it if I didn't see a lot more cops in the last two or three days of the month than I do all other times. Coincidence I'm sure.

My brother was an Arlington cop for about 10 years. He told me that there is no ticket quota per se....but they DID have general parameters they used to determine if a cop was goofing off. Like if the AVERAGE cop wrote say, 30 tickets a month and you write 5....you might get called in to explain that.

I dunno, that's what my bro told me and he had no reason to lie to me. But that was Arlington...other depts could be different, I suppose

Yeah, right, and all those cops on 7100 every 30th/31st is just a concidence.

I think Price may be a doubter in the whole "quota" thing.

The guy I know wrote one ticket last month... if only all cops were like him...

I do know they come out like hell of the first couple days of each month to check the state inspection stickers.

My husband is a DC cop and they do not have quotas....neither does PWC. I think it's hilarious when people think cops like pulling people over and writing tickets...like they enjoy it. Cops *hate* paperwork. Unless they are dorks.

Once again, quotas may not exist, but how do you explain all that end of the month activity, that occurs - surprise - every month?

There may not be quotas per se, but you can be sure that supervisors are aware of the amount of paperwork that an officer generates and "rewards" are provided to those officers that can prove that they are doing a good job. Those officers get the better patrol cars, the better posts to patrol, a better chance at advancing through the ranks or moving to other details that they might like, etc. Of course there is not going to be a "quota" that is put on paper, but there are ways around everything!

Officer Friendly may or may not be right. He is speculating.

Only one sure thing about quotas, they are clearly unconstutional so if you can prove your ticket was given as part of a quota program, I have no doubt it won't.

But come on folks is dead-on. Who needs quotas with computers? You can determine who should be doing such and such activity in a certain place now just via data mining.

Law enforcement should always be very specific in dealing with the problems of the direct area they are in. If that means keeping on top of speeders in one place, than I would expect the cops in that place to have high ticket amounts. If it's about keweping an eye on break-ins and other street crime, I would not expect as many tickets. And so on.

Here we are on July 31. I rarely ever see cops patrolling the main lanes of I-66, only occasional HOV enforcement on the exits. Coincidence I am sure, but I saw lots of blue lights in the main lanes this morning.

Funny. I drove from Tysons to Bethesda twice on Saturday and on both trips I saw speed traps on the Beltway in between the Dulles and GW parkway exits. The first time I didn't even see the car, it was just a lone cop tucked away on the median holding a radar gun, and on the way back into VA two cruisers had an SUV pulled over near the same place. I drive that strip frequently and it's not common to see that level of police activity there, and now that you mention "end-of-the-month quotas", it makes does sorta make me wonder....

they lied. they LIED to us!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2006 05:05PM by pgens.
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Themeeper,

I see cops there oocasionally, maybe once a month, always different days and times. I think yours is a coincidence as far a stime of month, but I could be wrong.

I'm going to keep an eye pealed for all this extra end-of-month police activity....I honestly have never noticed it. And I drive (tractor trailer for major grocery chain) for a living and am out there 45+ hours a week...not counting my commute.

But maybe I don't notice it BECAUSE driving is my livlihood...if I lose my CDL....I'm out of a job. Thus, I don't talk on the phone, drive drunk, speed, run lights, weave, or any of the other crazy shit some of you apparently have to do to get where you're going.

I think yours is a coincidence

It probably is. I'm sure I've probably seen cops along there before, but not in full force like they were on Saturday (also saw MD statey pull someone over near the River Road exit).

pgens- I like that pic, I'm stealing it.

TheMeeper Wrote:
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> pgens- I like that pic, I'm stealing it.


the text style makes it a bit hard to read. 't's look like 'b's


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

.

I dont know of any jurisdiction that has a "quota". But I do know they have "standards".

If a cop works all month and writes no tickets he/she will hear about it for sure. Call it a quota or whatever you want it is there.

sorry. correction attached.
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MUCH better.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

They may not have quotas but they sure do like to sit out waiting to give tickets. I guess it's easier than finding missing kids or bank robbers.

I was a cop for 12 years. My department didn't have quotas. We had "expectations." We were expected to write 60 citations a month, but warnings also counted as part of the 60. One year the county said we weren't getting our little 3% raise, so we issued no citations for a whole month. We gave pretty much everybody a written warning for just about every violation.

It worked. We got our raise.