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From: dca@edison.UUCP (David C. Albrecht)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Re: Radar Detectors
Message-ID: <542@edison.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Sep-85 13:39:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: edison.542
Posted: Mon Sep  9 13:39:13 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Sep-85 21:21:04 EDT
References: <215@mhuxn.UUCP>, <453@enmasse.UUCP> <211@pyuxii.UUCP> <315@ihlpl.UUCP>
Organization: General Electric Company, Charlottesville, VA
Lines: 31

> The police do NOT pick up motorists who are driving reasonably, even if
> they are a little over the posted.  I do a fair amount of expressway
> and Interstate driving and tend to hold my speed at 60-65mph.  I have
> never been ticketed for that level of exceeding the limit.  I have
> noticed that the cops DO go after the jerk doing 20mph or more over the
> limit, or weaving in and out of traffic to get to the off-ramp 75
> nanoseconds earlier than otherwise.  Yes, there are some cops in this
> world who are inept or on the take or otherwise less than exemplary.
> To use this minority of cops as an excuse for anti-social behavior on
> the part of an immature motorist is revolting to any person who has
> grown up.
> 
Spare me the know it all attitude.  Neither you nor I knows all the traffic
cops in the country, their motivations, and the policies and pressures
put on them by their workplace.  Certainly, a good many of the violations
which officers issue are good and desirable as they keep people from
thinking they can get away with blatantly dangerous behavior.  However,
it is certainly NOT true to say that the police never give tickets to
people who are driving reasonably.  I know of tickets issued to people
at 4mph above the limit in a 35 zone and 7mph in a 55 and I certainly
don't consider either of these 'reasonable'.  Personally, I got a ticket
for 35 in a 25 at the bottom of a rather large hill and let me tell you
35 is not exactly zipping.
From my experiences I would say that police use very little discretion
as far as evaluation of safety but rather pick speeds on
departmental policy or how good a mood they are on
any particular day.  Personally I think it is more likely that the
tickets given out to people who are genuinely driving unsafely are
in the minority rather than the reverse.

David Albrecht