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Better do the speed limit in PA
Big Sky Redneck
Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
State troopers are writing tickets at a record pace along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
According to a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the ticket blitz is a result of troopers being required to issue 40 tickets a month to meet their quota.
Since Capt. David K. Points became Troop T commander Jan. 6, 2001, the number of speeding tickets issued on the turnpike increased by 16,075, or 21 percent, compared with 74,325 in 2000. The 90,400 tickets issued last year established a turnpike record.
But, at the current pace through the first three months of this year, troopers wrote more than 21,000, a 50 percent increase over the same period last year. If troopers continue to issue tickets at their current rate, more than 100,000 tickets will be issued this year.
Troopers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say superiors have told them to write more tickets to maintain "station averages," and contend that is tantamount to an illegal quota system, the newspaper reported. Troopers who don't keep up are getting unsatisfactory job evaluations, being placed on probation or being removed from their regular shifts.
The Troop T commander refutes that a quota system has been imposed. "All I can tell you is that I'm well aware of the law [against quotas], and we don't have quotas," Points said.
The state troopers association president is reportedly looking into the quota allegations.
OOIDA has long been aware of quotas in Ohio. In May 1999, OOIDA's Land Line Magazine features a story about a former Ohio state trooper named Tim Houston.
In the story, LL reported that Houston failed to meet his quota because he had been a trucker and knew how devastating it would be for a professional trucker to lose his CDL. His sympathy and sense of wrongdoing lost him his job. More than that, in December, 1998, Houston was convicted on eight counts of misdemeanor falsification. According to newspaper reports, patrol investigators claimed Houston admitted he had "fudged" records to make it appear he had written more tickets to truckers than he actually did.
Houston was also indicted on eight felony counts of forgery. The counts were later dropped and Tim Houston pleaded guilty to falsification charges. He was given two years suspended sentence and ordered to spend 90 days under house arrest. He was fired from the Ohio Highway Patrol. Houston, says his troubles came from tearing up tickets he'd written to commercial drivers.
He told Land Line that his willingess to let a trucker go, rather than write him/her a citation did not translate well with the goals of the highway patrol. According to Houston, truckers are cast in a negative light as early as during training at the police academy. He says one of his instructors referred to the typical trucker as a "dirty, rotten, stinking, filthy, gear-jammer."
Houston told Land Line "There's an animosity towards (truckers). It seems like they try to portray the lowest life form is a whole time."
Houston's allegations appear to correlate with the state's guidelines for giving citations to commercial drivers. According to a copy of the 1998 Medina, OH, operational strategies, troopers are expected to "commit themselves to a 20 percent enforcement index" of commercial vehicles, meaning essentially that 20 percent of their tickets should come from commercial vehicles. But a 1998 pamphlet issued by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics indicates that commercial trucks make up less than four percent of all the vehicles on the interstates.
In order to compensate, Houston said truckers are often issued multiple citations. "The state highway patrol in Ohio wants you to nail truckdrivers as often and as many as you can get," he says. "And you'll see most troopers, they'll stop a truckdriver and give them multiple citations on one stop.
Houston's allegations were denied by the a top highway patrol official.
According to a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the ticket blitz is a result of troopers being required to issue 40 tickets a month to meet their quota.
Since Capt. David K. Points became Troop T commander Jan. 6, 2001, the number of speeding tickets issued on the turnpike increased by 16,075, or 21 percent, compared with 74,325 in 2000. The 90,400 tickets issued last year established a turnpike record.
But, at the current pace through the first three months of this year, troopers wrote more than 21,000, a 50 percent increase over the same period last year. If troopers continue to issue tickets at their current rate, more than 100,000 tickets will be issued this year.
Troopers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say superiors have told them to write more tickets to maintain "station averages," and contend that is tantamount to an illegal quota system, the newspaper reported. Troopers who don't keep up are getting unsatisfactory job evaluations, being placed on probation or being removed from their regular shifts.
The Troop T commander refutes that a quota system has been imposed. "All I can tell you is that I'm well aware of the law [against quotas], and we don't have quotas," Points said.
The state troopers association president is reportedly looking into the quota allegations.
OOIDA has long been aware of quotas in Ohio. In May 1999, OOIDA's Land Line Magazine features a story about a former Ohio state trooper named Tim Houston.
In the story, LL reported that Houston failed to meet his quota because he had been a trucker and knew how devastating it would be for a professional trucker to lose his CDL. His sympathy and sense of wrongdoing lost him his job. More than that, in December, 1998, Houston was convicted on eight counts of misdemeanor falsification. According to newspaper reports, patrol investigators claimed Houston admitted he had "fudged" records to make it appear he had written more tickets to truckers than he actually did.
Houston was also indicted on eight felony counts of forgery. The counts were later dropped and Tim Houston pleaded guilty to falsification charges. He was given two years suspended sentence and ordered to spend 90 days under house arrest. He was fired from the Ohio Highway Patrol. Houston, says his troubles came from tearing up tickets he'd written to commercial drivers.
He told Land Line that his willingess to let a trucker go, rather than write him/her a citation did not translate well with the goals of the highway patrol. According to Houston, truckers are cast in a negative light as early as during training at the police academy. He says one of his instructors referred to the typical trucker as a "dirty, rotten, stinking, filthy, gear-jammer."
Houston told Land Line "There's an animosity towards (truckers). It seems like they try to portray the lowest life form is a whole time."
Houston's allegations appear to correlate with the state's guidelines for giving citations to commercial drivers. According to a copy of the 1998 Medina, OH, operational strategies, troopers are expected to "commit themselves to a 20 percent enforcement index" of commercial vehicles, meaning essentially that 20 percent of their tickets should come from commercial vehicles. But a 1998 pamphlet issued by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics indicates that commercial trucks make up less than four percent of all the vehicles on the interstates.
In order to compensate, Houston said truckers are often issued multiple citations. "The state highway patrol in Ohio wants you to nail truckdrivers as often and as many as you can get," he says. "And you'll see most troopers, they'll stop a truckdriver and give them multiple citations on one stop.
Houston's allegations were denied by the a top highway patrol official.
Comments
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I have driven trucks since I was 14. Had to stop in 1996 after having 3 back surgeries in a 12 month period. So I do have some experience in the business. I agree, it would be devastating for a driver to lose his CDL, but heck, to keep it from happening, SLOW DOWN! Don't put yourself in a position to lose it. I don't like speed limits any more than anyone else, especially the stupid "split limits" that some states maintain for trucks, but they do post them on BIG signs, and if you drive faster than posted, you take your chances, quota or no quota from the troopers.
http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/May02/051702.htm
Edited by - 7mm nut on 05/17/2002 17:43:02
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I drive 35,000 miles a year and haven't had a ticket in 21 years. (Knock on wood).
He is apparently not representative of his peers. All we can get here is brand new rookie troopers straight out of the academy, and they transfer out of here as soon as they can.
The policy causes some REALLY feather-legged and even BOGUS charges to be filed.
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Oh, and most truck drivers drive at least 150,000 miles a year, although I clocked almost 300,000 one year a while back on a dedicated route.
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