As a follow-up to last week’s article on the operations of our patrol division, I wanted to expand on a few myths I hear from time to time regarding our motivation and benefit of conducting traffic stops and issuing citations.
As it pertains to generating revenue is our primary motive, this could not be further from the truth. Let’s take a common citation for speeding with a forfeiture of $200.50
Of that $200.50, $25.00 goes directly towards court costs. $89.50 goes towards Court Support Services, 23.00 is assessed as a Crime Lab surcharge, $13.00 is a penalty surcharge, and $50.00 goes towards a deposit. In essence, none of that money remains here with the Sheriff’s Department, so revenue is not a driving factor in our decision to issue a citation for a given offense. It always has been and will continue to be the safety of our community which motivates us to be proactive and vigilant in our enforcement of traffic laws.
The next narrative is that we here at the Sheriff’s Department have a quota that must be met each and every month. I will concede that there is a slight aspect of truth to this, however, not in terms of citations or fines. Instead, we do encourage and monitor “Contacts” that our Patrol Deputies have on a given shift. Now, there are two ways in which “Contacts are made; one is proactive, and the other is reactive. You could also define them as “Formal” or “Informal” contacts. I can tell you that as Sheriff, what I like to see are a solid number of proactive and informal contacts. What this tells me is that the Deputy is going out of their way to engage with members of our community. This could be in the form of a traffic stop or just stopping in at a place of business. The outcome is not the focus here but rather the contact itself and the positive relationships that these interactions cultivate.
Another concern that I have heard is that we should be focusing our efforts on major crime in our communities rather than wasting our time on traffic enforcement. To this, I would say that, fortunately, we have the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have a wonderful community that is not overwhelmed with criminal activity, and when such activity occurs, we have the resources and abilities to pivot and confront such challenges. We do not need to suspend our focus on keeping our roads safe in an effort to thwart criminal activity, nor do we ignore criminal activity in pursuit of dealing with those lesser violations. To this point, next week, I will be spending some time sharing information about our Investigative Division here at the Sheriff’s Department.
