tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post2768439483176691230..comments2024-03-25T20:06:39.794-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: Austin traffic stop totals remain lowGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-12904608088116725912016-05-20T05:12:10.910-05:002016-05-20T05:12:10.910-05:005:09, how do you explain that most of the decline ...5:09, how do you explain that most of the decline happened pre-Ferguson?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-71655995450451753762016-05-19T17:09:54.449-05:002016-05-19T17:09:54.449-05:00While I agree there could be dozens of reasons for...While I agree there could be dozens of reasons for the decline: one (for 2015 figures and likely will continue in 2016) could be related to the Ferguson effect where officers are less willing to be proactive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-46525309800429987722016-05-19T10:58:47.717-05:002016-05-19T10:58:47.717-05:00So Tom, did any of your clients actually have to b...So Tom, did any of your clients actually have to beg for a ticket? HPD did not artificially increase the number of tickets issued for a long game approach, they merely followed orders. While not formally establishing a ticket quota, the common saying was for officers to run their calls for service and write a couple of tickets to keep their sergeants off their backs. If they wanted a patrol car that was not falling apart, wanted consideration for choice assignments, and wanted to be less likely to be assigned to some of the lousier details, they wrote a few tickets. Conversely, if an officer wrote a ton of tickets, he was not given any better consideration than the ones that wrote a few, their culture making heavy ticket writers pariahs in a way that remains to this day.<br /><br />HPD union leaders did discourage officers from writing tickets a few times over the years to "send a message" to whichever mayor was causing them grief but those were very limited in terms of duration, typically a month. In more recent years, larger numbers of tickets were issued by specialty units in their truck inspection unit, traffic enforcement unit, and radar task force squads, no formal quota attached to such positions but an expectation that officers would "be productive" throughout their shifts. As these divisions were downsized, the drop in absolute number of tickets was immediately apparent, the groups all required to maintain extensive statistics for a growing number of reports. Recent city police chiefs also applied for fewer state and federal grants of overtime money, the strings attached to the grants demanding more and the amount of the grants reduced.<br /><br />Then the last tier in the reduction of tickets tied not just to the fewer hours of specialists on the streets and lack of OT programs but the city moving court hours for most officers to their regular shifts, taking officers off the streets for hours at a time, and giving most officers fewer court days than before, some having court once a month as they were scheduled with dozens of cases in multiple courts which creates a disincentive for them. That might be a sergeant's unwillingness to allow an officer to attend court when calls are holding or the lack of court overtime requiring more extra details that demand an officer get off his assigned shift on time lest he be replaced, but if Tom is a regular attendee in municipal courts, he would know all of this since the officers and their supervisors are very vocal about it all.<br /><br />Lest it be said that these are local factors and the trends are nationwide, keep in mind that large cities like Houston, Dallas, and Austin, do not exist in a vacuum. They communicate with each other regularly on methods to reduce costs and increase productivity from their limited manpower. Some things that Houston does were picked up by the others and vice versa over the years, those tasked with coming up with "new" ideas finding them in other departments or from their pursuit of higher education, HPD paying officers more to possess a college degree and requiring more education as an officer promotes. Ask the professors at the colleges these people attend (cough), and they can fill in any blanks as the city often hires such folks to do various studies, some suggesting very cozy relationships between students that are ranking members of HPD and their teachers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-72291517900414260302016-05-19T09:49:42.599-05:002016-05-19T09:49:42.599-05:00I have no idea of the relationship between the Aus...I have no idea of the relationship between the Austin Police Department and the city administration but in Houston in the 1980s, HPD manipulated traffic ticketing to mess with the city administration's budgeting.<br />At first, they ticketed everyone for just about everything. Municipal court revenue went way up. Then, after the city relied on that money for it's budget, you darn near had to beg a cop to ticket you. Municipal court revenue dropped like a stone and the administration had to find the money someplace.<br />Just an idea.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10422756686976294550noreply@blogger.com