As a direct result of the NYC ticket-fixing scandal, NYPD officers have seriously slowed down writing traffic tickets. The Daily News reports that city-wide 22.9% less traffic tickets are being issued last month compared to July 2010 (52,159 moving violations versus 67,649 last year).
A new police policy tied to the scandal is encouraging officers to simply issue warnings (and even look the other way) rather than issuing traffic tickets. The policy docks officers 10 days of vacation time if he or she makes a mistake issuing a ticket or in testifying. Ouch!
Internal Affair officers have been assigned to each Traffic Violations Bureau to “oversee” police testimony and monitor their results. If an officer can’t recall a case or inadvertently wrote down incorrect information about a case, he’s written up.
Ten days for a honest mistake is ridiculous. It’s no wonder that cops loathe to write tickets.