Traffic enforcement

[admin]

From the Town of FM:

Traffic Enforcement Program Provides Array of Safety Benefits

Traffic enforcement is one of the most visible and beneficial services a police department provides to a community. In addition to making the streets safer for motorists, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians, a proactive traffic enforcement program contributes to the overall safety of a community on a variety of levels.

The average American is more likely to be involved in a traffic crash than be a victim of a crime. According to national statistics, there is one fatality crash every 12 minutes, one injury crash every 11 seconds, one reported crash every 5 seconds, and one property damage crash every 7 seconds. Everyone pays for traffic crashes and the economic costs are significantly more than crime. Crashes cost Americans $164.2 billion annually, while violent crimes and property crimes cost Americans $16.1 billion annually.

The Flower Mound Police Department operates a fulltime traffic enforcement unit comprised of six officers and a sergeant. The group is responsible for traffic enforcement and accident investigation. There were 746 reported crashes in Flower Mound in 2009, 146 of them involved injuries and six involved fatalities.

A common misconception about traffic enforcement is that police officers excessively enforce speeding laws. It is accurate that one of the most common and dangerous infractions the unit must address on a daily basis is vehicular speeding. The offense contributes to an estimated 21 percent of all fatal car crashes nationally, and 88 percent of all speeding-related fatalities in 2008 occurred on local roads.

While speeding is a serious violation that warrants enforcement, recently released statistics indicate that it does not receive a disproportionate amount of resource allocation when compared to other traffic offenses. The Flower Mound Police Department issued approximately 26,000 traffic citations between January 2009 and August 2010. Of those citations issued, only 42 percent were for speeding. In addition, the average speeding citation in Flower Mound was issued for 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, well above the threshold that officers can legally enforce.

Two additional myths about traffic enforcement are that officers are encouraged to write tickets as a revenue generator for the town and they unfairly target the community's youth. The Flower Mound Police Department conducted 49,055 traffic stops between January 2009 and August 2010. Of those stops, only 37 percent resulted in citations being issued, and approximately 3 percent resulted in citations issued to juveniles.

In addition to enforcement, traffic officers perform a myriad of safety-related services, including addressing drivers who operate vehicles in an erratic, reckless, careless, or negligent manner and removing impaired drivers from the road. National Alcohol-Related Fatal and Injury Crash statistics indicate that 41% of all fatal crashes and 9% of all injury crashes are alcohol related. In 2009, Flower Mound police officers made 216 DWI arrests and 40 DUI minor arrests.

In addition, traffic enforcement also regularly identifies criminals who are in the process of other crimes or have outstanding warrants. Traffic stops in Flower Mound resulted in the apprehension of 617 criminals in 2009 and another 535 arrests between January and August 2010. Drugs, weapons, contraband, fugitives, and criminals are frequently found in vehicles and removed from the community during "routine" traffic stops.

[slider701]

Blah.....Blah.....Blah..............What I read is "We need some revenue to pay for the lawyer bills we incurred fighting (and losing) against Hilliard".............

[Pipeline]

Blah..... Blah..... Blah.....Flower Mound Pd is a revenue generator. 26000 tickets x an average of 175.00 bucks. How much is that? Let's see, multiply this, and divide by that, add this to this, subtract this from that. 4 and a half million. Nice. That ought to pay a lot of legal fees. Can I leave my keys in my car and the front door unlocked at night in fm? I'm wanted in 58 states (including DC) for overdue traffic citations, well, maybe, to be honest, only a couple of parking tickets in Dallas (double parking picking up one of my local county welfare checks, while I paid someone to stand in line for me at Parkland for some free medical care). Come and get me "you dirty rats".

[roadkill]

Two additional myths about traffic enforcement are that officers are encouraged to write tickets as a revenue generator for the town

If this were true, then speed trap areas wouldn't be so heavily targeted. The latest one is the "construction" zone on Gerault. Cops have been on that stretch so frequently they might as well move the station there. Thank God they aren't actually doing any construction there or the fines would be higher.

[roadkill]

Blah.....Blah.....Blah..............What I read is "We need some revenue to pay for the lawyer bills we incurred fighting (and losing) against Hilliard".............

They were doing this long before Uncle Ronnie decided to dress up like an oilman for Halloween.

[falcon999]

i just found out about the expose on wfaa, that's why this press release was done. Apparently if you write more tickets than people in your town, it gets a bit excessive. Just never speed in FM is the plan.

So I was out driving to work at 5am, a car passed me going probably 5 over, we were the only 2 cars for quite a while, In fact I don't think I could see any other cars, but he got a ticket. I guess he won't speed anymore.

[Uther]

i just found out about the expose on wfaa,

Expose? What expose? Searched WFAA and couldn't find anything.

[roadkill]

So I was out driving to work at 5am, a car passed me going probably 5 over, we were the only 2 cars for quite a while, In fact I don't think I could see any other cars, but he got a ticket. I guess he won't speed anymore.

5 over?!?! Criminy.

Do the cops in Flower Mound actually do anything useful? How many of them are there?

[admin]

Comments about this issue from NBC 5's website: http://www.nbcdfw.com/traffic/transit/F ... l#comments

[Uther]

I call (mostly) BS on that story. 49,000 stops and 26,000 tickets doesn't seem the wrong way. In the 11+ years I have lived adjacent to FM, I got pulled over twice. Once my State inspection was expired. I got a ticket and was told if I brought the inspection certificate in, they would waive all but $10 of the ticket. The other time, about 9-10 years later, I was pulled over for speeding through the 1171 construction zone, warned and let go - no ticket.

That seems to me to be reasonable policing.

[weim_09]

So I was out driving to work at 5am, a car passed me going probably 5 over, we were the only 2 cars for quite a while, In fact I don't think I could see any other cars, but he got a ticket. I guess he won't speed anymore.

weird I passed a FM police officer yesterday on 3040 by the cemetery where the speed limit is 45 mph doing a hair under 50/49 and no problem. All the rest of the drives around the officer slowed to 40, which I thought deserved a ticket.

Don't want a ticket don't speed...kind of simple

[JKTex]

So I was out driving to work at 5am, a car passed me going probably 5 over, we were the only 2 cars for quite a while, In fact I don't think I could see any other cars, but he got a ticket. I guess he won't speed anymore.

weird I passed a FM police officer yesterday on 3040 by the cemetery where the speed limit is 45 mph doing a hair under 50/49 and no problem. All the rest of the drives around the officer slowed to 40, which I thought deserved a ticket.

Don't want a ticket don't speed...kind of simple

I agree. They're either going over the limit of at it and as long as it's within reason, I have no problem passing them, but most people panic and nearly cause wrecks slamming on the breaks.

I've actually not seen an actual "speed trap" in quite a while. They sit in areas called and scheduled as "high enforcement" but it's usually for a specific purpose other than just filling the hat. I might not have said that in years gone by though. My welcome to FM was within a week of moving out here and getting pulled over at about 3AM coming home from work on 1171 when the only vehicles in sight were he and I, and before there was much development along there, and I was doing 10 or maybe 15 over. He was a rookie who had a ride along that made him write the ticket for training. 8-9 years ago I got another ticket that was indeed and BS speed trap and I was picked out of heavy traffic. Funny thing was, I was in a lane slowing for turning traffic yet somehow I was mysteriously doing 15 over the limit with the other lanes passing me doing right at the limit.

Whether they like to target people passing through that look suspicious is another thing, but then again, I'm not opposed to profiling either.

[roadkill]

Don't want a ticket don't speed...kind of simple

Yes, I believe drivers should be focused on the speedometer rather than, you know, the road.

[weim_09]

Don't want a ticket don't speed...kind of simple

Yes, I believe drivers should be focused on the speedometer rather than, you know, the road.

sure ...or the cell phone ..is it really that hard to figure out how to watch the road and go the speed limit too?

[roadkill]

Don't want a ticket don't speed...kind of simple

Yes, I believe drivers should be focused on the speedometer rather than, you know, the road.

sure ...or the cell phone ..is it really that hard to figure out how to watch the road and go the speed limit too?

When the limit changes from 45 to 35 to 40 to 50 to 45 on a similar stretch of road and all the limits are lower than what a driver would naturally go, sure.