Archive for August, 2010
Chicago traffic ticket quotas? Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley issued a one day suspension to the city revenue director because of and email she sent criticizing the police for not writing enough traffic tickets.
Bea Reyna Hickey didn’t necessarily personally send the email, but she’s taking the fall because it was sent from her department.
The mayor called the memo a stupid email sent by some bureaucrat.
The e-mail noted how fewer traffic tickets issued this year compared to last year would cause a dramatic decrease in revenue.
The biggest question here…Does the Mayor think it’s actually wrong to encourage the city police to issue more tickets or is this only a problem because the encouragement was put in writing?
It’s the old quota issue. We won’t tell you that you need to issue a specific number of traffic tickets, but if you don’t issue “enough” traffic tickets we’re certainly not going to be happy with your performance.
If you have any questions about a Chicago speeding ticket or other traffic ticket, feel free to contact a Chicago traffic ticket attorney for a quick consultation.
Submitted by New York traffic lawyer Scott Feifer
Facebook and traffic tickets Friday, August 13th, 2010
Facebook was in the news twice recently in connection with traffic ticket stories.
First, a story about issuing tickets with the help of Facebook…
Traffic officers in in New Delhi, India have started issuing traffic tickets based on images uploaded to Facebook by motorists who claim to have witnessed certain violations. There are so many posts that police actually have two full time staff members looking through them for legitimate traffic violations. The justification for this enforcement method is that, with only 5,000 traffic officers patrolling a city with 6.5 million registered vehicles, too many violations go unpunished and motorists drive with little fear of receiving a traffic ticket. With the help of pictures where a license plate was visible, police have been able to track down and issue almost 700 tickets since mid May and, in theory, encourage many more to drive safely out of fear for being the next violator photographed.
Now a story about tickets getting dismissed with the help of Facebook…
A Houston, Texas woman recently made a public Facebook plea for help with a few Houston traffic tickets she had been issued. An investigator from the Houston Fire Department responded that she knew the police officer and within a few hours there was a public posting that the tickets had been ripped up. The woman who received the tickets may have had a story that would ultimately have helped in court–apparently her father was a firefighter who recently died and she was attending to his funeral arrangements at the time the tickets were issued. Nevertheless, the use of such a public forum to conduct this type of business has resulted in further investigation of the parties involved.
Social Media really is infiltrating more and more aspects of our lives.
Submitted by NY traffic lawyer Scott Feifer
