On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 12:34 PM, <bjshov8 at tx.rr.com> wrote:
As far as I'm concerned, utilizing the police resources that I pay
taxes for in traffic enforcement actually reduces the safety of my
family and my home, and I don't like that.
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During my working career, I worked as a police officer for townships,
small municipalities, a university and retired after finishing out my
time with the State of Ohio. The major part of law enforcement is
DETERENCE. It is not often that a cop walks into a crime as it is
being committed, let alone get there before it is over after being
summoned to help! Those do happen but usually the cop ends up dealing
with the aftermath of a crime...
Traffic enforcement is a major part of deterence. I was going to do my
Master's thesis on the effects of a strong traffic enforcement program
comparing small communities' crime rates with the amount of traffic
enforcement. My theory is that the bad guys know where they are more
likely to get pulled over for a traffic or equipment infraction so
they tend to aviod those areas. The small municipalities tend to have
stronger traffic enforcement programs than larger communities. Most
likely because they don't have as much serious crime and have the time
to deal with traffic. Which, in terms of my theory, reduces serious
crime and gives them even more time to do other things. When I worked
the road, I tried to balance my time between answering calls, traffic
and/or other enforcement, and routine patrol of the business and
residential areas in my beat. Of those police departments with
proactive traffic enforcement, some get reputations for being pricks
because they ticket everyone for anything. Those departments are not
well liked by police in general either!!! You can have strict
enforcement without giving everyone a ticket. You also get more
goodwill from the voters when you do your job without the "attitude".I
could tell many stories about enforcing the law without having to
ticket or arrest and actually getting my point across to the person
that I was dealing with.
Due to many outside influences, I did not finish the Master's program
so I never did the study... I do remain convinced from an insider's
perspective that traffic enforcement does actually keep you safer in
your community and your home!
Since I am retired now, I will never follow up on my theory as there
is no need. On the other hand, I do carry a Federal CCW permit and
firmly belive in being able to protect myself and others should the
need arise.
--
Kent
1960 Bugeye
1967 Sprite - following in the 73's footsteps to the boneyard...
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