Traveling Through Fort Worth and others

dwayneb236 wrote:
And maybe stopping enough drivers breaking the law, hitting them where it hurts, their wallets, will alter their poor driving habits. Or should we just let them drive however fast they want to. That's a good idea.

I'll never understand about people complaining about traffic officers pulling people over for traffic offenses. That's their jobs. They are not out there humping call to call like patrol officers. A patrol officer will pull someone over if he sees the offense and is not on any other call, but their main job is responding to dispatched calls and taking report after report after report after report.

It's not rocket science people, just slow down and obey the law! I bet you won't get a speeding ticket then.

Many people buy insurance by the month down here. Pay for the month, get their car, and never pay for insurance again. I think policies should be minimum of 6 months. But that's just me.

How are there that many uninsured drivers?
NY must run totally different. You are not issued tags without proof of insurance. If your insurance lapses, you ins company notifies DMV which puts your tag on the NYSPIN system. Any police car with a scanner,( which is all of them except for maybe a few small town forces) can and will pull you over. Last I knew it was eighty dollar a day penalty for each day you are lapsed, not including court costs and the fine. Car is impounded on the spot.

I like how San Antonio handles uninsured vehicles. They scan plates, if one isn't showing insured in the DPS database, the vehicle gets pulled over, occupants booted from the vehicle, and the vehicle towed/impounded. If plates don't match a vehicle (say plates from a Chevy on a Toyota), the police will know, which keeps license plate theft to a minimum.

And maybe stopping enough drivers breaking the law, hitting them where it hurts, their wallets, will alter their poor driving habits. Or should we just let them drive however fast they want to. That's a good idea.

I'll never understand about people complaining about traffic officers pulling people over for traffic offenses. That's their jobs. They are not out there humping call to call like patrol officers. A patrol officer will pull someone over if he sees the offense and is not on any other call, but their main job is responding to dispatched calls and taking report after report after report after report.

down home wrote:
CBS channel 11 Ft Worth reports the Step program requires 4 "contacts" tickets per officer per hour. Goal to increase speeding tickets by over 14,000 and others likewise.
We might try to detour around these places this year.

Revenue ($$$) generation, pure and simple.

As a retired police officer, I can tell you that there are so many crazy drivers going way over the speed limit they really don't need to focus on the good people.

As a former LEO, I often would use excessive speed at "probable cause" to stop a vehicle. Then when their window rolled down and the alcohol fumes came out, it was another drunk driver off the road. I was never pressured to write a certain number of citations per shift, I got to write all I wanted to do.

Most of the drug mules, I stopped in Colorado were due to defective vehicles that violated Colorado law, i.e. tail lights not working, broken tail lights, expired tags, windows tinted to dark, etc.
The most common way for the drug dealers to ship drugs was to buy a used car (usually a junker off a car lot somewhere along the southern border) then find some illegals wanting to go north. The car would be packed with the drugs and the illegals would be sent north in it and told where to deliver the drugs. They got to keep the car. It was still registered to the person that sold/traded it to the car lot where it was purchased. Often times they buy the cheapest car they can find that they think will make it to the delivery point.
The mules/runners are usually not career criminals, just needing a way to get north and the thought of being a car owner is very a very powerful incentive.
One evening about 3 AM, I was on patrol in western Colorado when I spotted some runners and they had a tail light not working. Hit them with the overhead lights and they pulled to a halt. Then it looked like a covey of quail leaving that car. Six men were headed out all 4 doors. When I checked out the car it was full of drugs so I called DEA and INS and waited till they got there to take over. All 6 men were found and arrested by the feds.

I have not noticed any increase in speed enforcement on Ft. Worth roads. Move with the flow and you'll have no problems. Yes, the traffic isn't great. Lots of population growth means road construction. Hard to drive across? There are 6.5 million people in the DFW metro spread across 9,000 square miles(more area than Rhode Island & Connecticut combined). Have you ever driven across the New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago metro areas?

do the speed limit and you don't have to worry.....the more tickets issued may slow some people down.....