Speed tolerance
 

I'm curious.. to all the officers and ex-officers on here.. is there an accepted 'tolerance' to the speeders out there?

eg. I see everyone going 10-20km/h over the posted speed limit.. yet no one gets pulled over. When there's someone going 30 over.. then they're bait.

Is there a departmental policy? Or is it just up to the officer? (And if you're willing to share, what's your 'number'? 10 over? 20?)

Just curious.

Go to the thread about impoundment in this forum, zulutango has stated he won't pull over for 70 in a 50, i have a neighbour who's a cop and he says he only gives speeding tickets for people who are complete assholes when he pulls them over.

I even went on a ride-along with patrol officers and they admit that they speed. It's really the traffic officers that are anal. Gotta maintain their quota.
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I thought police officers didn't have quotas?

think again. They do.
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Cops have quotas.

From what i've heard they don't enjoy filling them, but they have to.

From what I know, quota is the laymen's term.

The deal is that each officer has to spend lets say 60 hours a month on traffic enforcement. In order to prove you did 60 hours a month, you need to show copies of tickets. What better way to provide copies other than to sit at some major hot spots and write up ppl for doing minor/major infractions.

It's no different than a University teacher having to give out some B's and some C's because the Dean wants to maintain status quo of the program. I'm sure if they could, we'd all get A's, but what does that say about the system? No different than the bank teller trying to push a credit card on you. No different than a regulatory body pushing PD hours on you.

The difference is that nobody dies if the professor ups somebodys marks to meet his PC quotas The reason they are called hot spots is because lots of drivers choose to break the law there, for whatever reason.

Traffic Members investigate and enforce traffic situations. Drug Members target drugs, Ident members deal with crime scenes etc. That does not mean that a Traffic Member will ignore a drug incident, nor an Ident or Drug Member will ignore a traffic matter. They are called specialized sections for a reason. The others are called "General Duties" and that's what they handle. All of us spend time in GD before moving into other areas if we and the boss, wish to do so.

Speed tolerance is just that, permitting a certain excess above the legal requirements, depending on circumstances. I never ignored someone driving 20 k over the limit, just that I seldom ticketed for less than that. All kinds of drivers going faster than that. If you steal a candy bar from a store you are a thief. If you steal an $80,000 car you are also a thief. Will you get jail time for the candy bar?....will you more likely get jail time for the car??? Lots of times I would stop for that speed but instead issue a verbal or written warning or maybre ticket for a lesser offence I observed. EG no VT for speeding but a VT for no front plate.

I also issued tickets for people doing the limit, or under it, in cases of hazardous driving. Going 70 in an 80 zone where the fog reduced their visibility to about 2 car lengths, got several drivers tickets for speed relative to conditions. IF you choose to exceed the limit by more than 1 kmh then you are legally speeding. You then should be ready to accept the consequences for your choice. Will you get stopped? Who knows? Depends on........................(fill in the blank).

Patrol officers aren't the ones you should hate on because they don't normally give traffic tickets unless you are driving like an ass. Traffic officers are the ones people hate. Don't know why people like to apply to be a traffic officer. The only benefit I see is you get to ride a motorcycle. Even patrol officers don't understand why people apply for the gig.
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If the cop is looking to fill his monthly quota, you could be fxxked even when you are only travelling < 15km above the limit. One time I was cruising down Knight at a hair over 60 (and definitely no more than 65), but somehow failed to notice the trap on the bridge where they normally set up and I got waved in. The officer knew he was giving me a bs ticket, and he wrote me a 51km/h in 50 zone offence. But basically, if you are gonna get fxxked, you're gonna get fxxked.

lol I got nabbed for doing 51km/hr in a 50km/hr zone, at the bottom of a hill. First ticket I ever received. I know it was technically speeding, but... man. I was choked about it.

Conversely, coming back from DTP one year, I was driving in my non-descript Oldsmobile Alero, speeding across the Oak Street bridge when a cop beside me lit up the lights to get my attention and yelled out the open windows to slow down. He then sped off to pull over a couple of modified cars that had also just come from the show, who were both doing the same speed as myself. :lol

The way I see it is that things invariably end up evening out eventually. You win some (cop decides to pull over someone in front of you instead), and you lose some (you get picked out of a crowd for doing 5km over the limit).

and that's why I always go on Marine drive onto Knight St. bridge. It's difficult to maintain the limit going down Knight street unless you ride the brakes like fuck the whole way down

Quotas? "Hot spots"?
More like "fishing holes"

The Fraser Valley Integrated Road Safety Unit: An Evaluation
Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General
Policing and Community Safety Branch
September, 2009

http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/policeserv...valleyirsu.pdf
page 103

:rukidding:

Why volunteer to be a fish that gets caught?

You know how I know things like "quotas" and "cash grabs" are a myth?

Because within five minutes of my place, there are at least two places where the cops could EASILY clean up, meet and exceed all their quotas within a week, and rake in bundles of cash, and then kick back at Timmies for the rest of the month... and yet I never ever see them in these places.

Hell, just on the east end of the Pitt River Bridge alone, they could be bringing in a fortune with all the assholes who cheat down the bus-only lanes to jump traffic at the light, and the three, four, five, or even more cars who flow right on through EVERY red light from Dewdney westbound onto the bridge.

Go a little further east to the intersection of Lougheed and Harris and they could make a bundle from the cars turning left from Lougheed westbound onto Harris southbound, 80% of whom make an illegal wide turn into the right-most lane. In the nine years I've lived here, I've seen cops monitoring that corner all of maybe three times...

Quotas are 100% fact (for Fraser Valley IRSU at least).

From the same document I posted above written by the BC Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General:
http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/policeserv...valleyirsu.pdf

That report doesn't just reference minimum output, it actually quantifies FV-IRSU's quota

I don't know how to better define a ticket writing quota than "maintaining a minimum amount violation ticket output" by police.

So if it's all about hitting the numbers, why are such obvious spots like my examples not enforced regularly? Make your quota in a week... coast for the rest of the month. If you tell me YOU wouldn't do that, you're full of shit.

How things would be different if we were Police Officers, eh Soundy?

I'd sit at the end of the HOV lane Hwy 1 Westbound, just by Willingdon there... and nab all the cheaters who use the lane to pass the people going the speed limit in the fast lane.

I guess we all have a pet peeve, and yet the Police never seem to be there.

So I guess the RCMP, VicPD, VPD, APD, NWPD, NVPD, Port Moody PD, Delta PD are all the same right? If one department has a quota, all Police departments in BC, and Canada do as well? Just like if one cop in Canada is corrupt, all cops in Canada/US/ the entire world, are corrupt.

I believe I was the one being criticized in another thread for being a "typical cop" because I was "generalizing". At least when I "generalize" it is from experiencing enough situations to be able to back it up, not by misinformation from the news, or heresay.

First and only ticket I've received for going 55 in a 50 on St Johns.

He sad I was street racing down the Barnett and 5 people called in saying I was racing. :lawl:

It was the end of the month so......

It's funny how everyone who gets a ticket were nailed for only going "5-10km" over the limit eh? It's almost as entertaining as the person I observed using her note 3 at a red light, stopped her, and she told me she wasn't.

Because broken speedometers.

And everyone stares at their speedometer the WHOLE time while they drive.. or has a built in speedometer implanted inside their ears.

I was also going with the flow of traffic and I saw him behind me.
When he pulled me over and asked me if I knew why I just looked at him and :seriously:

Sigh....

so what you are saying is that the flow of traffic always goes 55km/hr?