State law may be behind huge drop in tickets
Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Whoa…
* From the story…
“It’s almost like they’ve completely abdicated any responsibility on this issue,” said Deborah Hersman, CEO of the National Safety Council, an Itasca-based nonprofit.
Hersman said the drop in enforcement in Chicago is part of a national trend of police issuing fewer tickets for traffic violations, even as the number of traffic fatalities has jumped 14 percent nationwide in the past two years. But Hersman said she has seen nothing like the enforcement drop in Chicago anywhere else in the country.
Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that in 2015, Chicago police amended its cellphone citation policy to conform to a change in state law that mandated that cellphone violations follow the same process as other traffic violations. This means they would have to go to traffic court and require the presence of the citing officer to be upheld, requiring more police time. Previously, the municipal citations could be upheld before an administrative law judge without the citing officer being present. […]
Illinois State Police also reported a drop in enforcement of the state distracted driving law. Tickets dropped from 11,282 in 2014 to 8,229 in 2016, a 27 percent decline, said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Mike Link. The downward trend continued this year, with just 2,502 tickets issued as of May 3.
- Cell Phone Worship - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:37 pm:
I see the cops on their phones a lot, maybe their too distracted to write tickets?
- John Rawlss - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:39 pm:
Good. Time to abolish speed limits next. Let the free market decide. #Darwin
- Langhorne - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:39 pm:
Who was behind the change in the law?
- Chicago Cynic - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:41 pm:
And the behavior is getting worse and worse. Just realllllllly blatant stuff combined with really bad driving. And as Cell Phone Worship said above, the cops are often the worst offenders.
- Doug - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:45 pm:
—Who was behind the change in the law? —-
The sixth amendment to the US Constitution
- Shemp - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:53 pm:
Police are some of the worst offenders, but the State law explicitly exempted them.
Anyhow, that’s a lot of fine revenue to lose.
- Saluki - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:53 pm:
I think the Chicago police may feel they have other more pressing issues to deal with. just saying.
- former southerner - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:55 pm:
Anecdotal evidence but Monday while driving through a small central IL village a driver with a smartphone held up in front of his face blew through a stop sign and pulled out just in front of me forcing me to a quick near stop. Fortunately I was in my Corvette Z06 which stops very quickly AND I had already slowed down for the school zone that he blew into while glued to his phone. A few hundred feet further down the road he stopped at a funeral home; hopefully planning for his own Darwinian end prior to taking out others with his self-centered idiocy.
Anything which reduces the enforcement of distracted driving laws needs further scrutiny.
- Cubs in '16 - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:57 pm:
===Time to abolish speed limits next. Let the free market decide. #Darwin===
Have you ever driven in Chicago? lol
- AC - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:04 pm:
Law enforcement shouldn’t be exempt from any law we want people to respect. I’ve lost count of the numberof times I’ve seen a police officer holding a cell phone while driving. Technology could help, bluetooth in police cars and voice operated mobile data terminals would remove some of the hypocrisy associated with enforcement of mobile device laws.
- Chicago Cynic - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 2:28 pm:
Former southerner, that’s exactly the kind of realllllly blatant stuff I was referring to. Inexcusable and they should stop wasting time for minor speed violations and spend more time on crap like this.
- Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:12 pm:
Former, the idiot you evaded was possibly FaceTiming. That is a whole new dimension of stupid.
- former southerner - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:20 pm:
Chicago and Arthur, Good points from both of you. I should have thought about FaceTiming immediately since I also have an iPhone (which does NOT get used while I am driving even though it is Bluetooth enabled with all of my vehicles). I am trying to set the right example for my daughter who will be learning to drive in a couple of years-but NOT in the Z06