msmith1199 wrote:
I used to get a 3 hour minimum at time and a half. Nothing I used to love more than to get off work at 7am after working the grave shift and getting to go home and get a couple of hours rest and getting back up to appear in traffic court at 1pm. Then if lucky I could go get a couple of more hours sleep before I had to be on the midnight shift again.
To answer your question, no, cops don't write tickets to get overtime. There is generally more than enough overtime to go around and cops usually hate going to traffic court. It's a pain in the rear.
Amen. Especially in the current budget atmosphere, departments are forced to run positions vacant rather than have "another mouth to feed". It's cheaper to cover vacant positions, sick leave, and vacations with overtime, voluntary and even involuntary, than it is to hire more staff. Then there's the frequent major incidents that will result in overtime as well. There's more than enough overtime to go around.
There's nothing fun about doubling back to work your shift after spending half the day in court. With so many people now opting just to pay their fines online, and sign up for online traffic school to avoid the points on their license, an officer certainly can't assume that a given citation is going to mean a court appearance anyhow.
