It’s official: The leaders of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, and perhaps, many of the officers, are apparently determined to make life worse and more dangerous for themselves and all law enforcement officers. ABC11 reports:
How fast can you go on the highway without getting the attention of police? Anything under 10 miles per hour over the speed limit is okay, right?
Well, the North Carolina Department of Transportation is ready to burst the bubble on the widely believed 9 mph cushion myth.”
“The governor’s highway safety program is ramping up what’s being called ‘Obey the Sign or Pay the Fine’ speeding enforcement crackdown.
Apparently, there’s a belief out there that if the speed limit is 65, officers or troopers won’t pull you over if you’re doing 1 to 9 miles per hour over the limit – a so-called buffer zone.
The DOT says that’s not the case.
Law enforcement says beginning Thursday, they’ll target and ticket anyone driving above the posted speed limit.
Let’s review, gentle readers. Law enforcement officers around the nation are in trouble. Not only are the President of the United States and the DOJ stirring up public hatred of the police, not only is distrust of government, and its most visible symbols–police officers–at an all time high, not only are officers being murdered for no reason other than that they are police officers, the NC troopers decide it’s time to really piss off not only North Carolina citizens, but anyone experiencing the misfortune to drive through that state.
Governor McCrory, your state police need serious and immediate help with public relations.
But wait a minute, shouldn’t everyone obey the law? Of course, but this is not nearly as cut and dried as one might think.
Professional, rational police officers understand that they should never descend into issuing “chickenshit” tickets. A chickenshit ticket is a citation issued without any intellect involved, and without due regard to human nature and the realities of life. A trooper sees a motorist traveling 66 MPH in 65 MPH zone, so he nails that scofflaw! Chickenshit ticket. A trooper sees a motorist driving through an intersection against a yellow light. The rear wheels of the motorist’s vehicle are still within the far plane of the intersection when the light turns red, so he nails them for running a red light. Chickenshit ticket. That’s usually called a “pink” light, by cops, and anyone issuing pink light tickets usually gets an attitude adjustment from their Sergeant for being badge heavy–taking themselves too seriously and abusing their authority.
The bottom line is that no officer should cite anyone that is not obviously intending to break the law. Not only does that anger that citizen and everyone they know–oh yes, they’re all going to hear about it, for months and whenever the topic of the police comes up in the future–it destroys respect for the police and the law. This is why traffic robo cameras so anger citizens. There is no discretion, no accounting for human nature, no consideration of good intentions.
Consider also that the manufacturers of police radar units commonly certify them accurate only to +- 1 MPH. The same is true for laser devices, though some of those manufacturers claim them to be perfectly flawless. Rational cops know better. What this means is a citizen scrupulously trying to drive 65 in a 65 MPH zone could easily be doing 63-67 MPH. But it’s even worse.
The speedometers of motor vehicles are not calibrated for absolute accuracy. The speedometers in police vehicles–special factory built police package vehicles–are, but not the same models without those police goodies. At 65 MPH, a citizen doing his best to obey the speed limit could easily be traveling 5 MPH over the limit, perhaps even more, even though his speedometer is displaying 65 MPH. Keep in mind that speedometers are affected by tire wear, by new tires slightly different in size than original equipment tires, and a variety of other subtle factors. Police officers know this, or they damned well should know it.
The reality that we all must adjust our driving and speed to the vehicles surrounding us must also be taken into account. On many highways, anyone scrupulously trying to do the speed limit will find themselves to be an impediment to traffic, an actual danger to others, yet unscrupulous officers ready to write for one, or even a few, miles over the limit, will end up writing people for doing exactly what everyone else was doing, except they were trying harder than most to obey the law. This is why officers do, in fact, operate with so-called “buffer zones.” Such things are not formal policy, but informal applications of reason that recognize human nature.
NCHP Officers. I have no idea what they think–or intend–regarding this issue.
This is why officers must always use reasonable discretion in law enforcement: they can’t be badge heavy hard asses, because when they are, they’re going to end up arresting people that are consciously doing their best to obey the law. Good intentions have to matter. They’re what hold the system together.
What’s that you say, you’ve had a few tickets, but you’ve never been arrested? Oh, but you have been arrested. An arrest occurs when a citizen is detained by the police, and a reasonable person would not feel they were free to go. When the police limit your freedom of movement for any significant amount of time, you’ve been arrested. There are a few exceptions, the most common of which is “stop and frisk,” AKA a “Terry Stop,” but even then, the police may hold a citizen for only about 15 minutes, just long enough to check their identify and determine if they’re up to no good.
When a police officer makes a stop for an observed traffic violation, he has probable cause to believe a crime has been committed–a misdemeanor to be sure, but a crime–and that a specific person, the driver of that car, committed it. That driver is absolutely not free to go until the officer is finished with his business. Ninety-nine point something percent of the time, officers will release traffic violators on a written promise to appear, but they don’t have to do that. They can, if necessary, take a traffic violator into physical custody, take them to jail, and go the whole nine yards. They don’t do that because it would be ridiculously inconvenient for them and for everyone else. The system would grind to a halt if every traffic violator had to be processed at a local jail.
During my patrol days, I routinely wrote more citations than our entire traffic division, and I did it without a single chickenshit ticket. I would not write a stop sign or red light ticket unless the driver really blew through the intersection, or actually caused an accident. I wouldn’t write a speeding citation unless the driver was traveling at least 13 MPH over the speed limit. Even ignoring the error factors of radar and laser devices and the calibration difficulties of speedometers, it’s not hard for anyone, even if they are trying to obey the law, to look down and find themselves traveling five or more MPH above or below the speed limit. Ticketing people for that kind of daily, momentary lapse of intention and attention builds an enormous reservoir of bad will. However, if someone is traveling 38 MPH in a 25 MPH zone, they really don’t have an argument, do they? To do that, they have to be purposely speeding, or so inattentive they need a wake up call.
I also softened the blow by changing the speed to the lowest, least expensive fine category. This worked because in my jurisdiction, there were categories of offenses. Traveling 1-5 MPH over was X amount, and the cost rose with the speed. I always treated people with kindness and professionalism. I treated them as I would want a police officer to treat my wife or mother. My conviction rate for traffic offenses was nearly 100%–you can’t win ‘em all–and while people weren’t wild about the tickets, they usually thanked me, and I suspect, didn’t badmouth me, or the police in general, to their friends.
In North Carolina the Highway Patrol is about to shoot themselves–and police officers everywhere–in the foot. This is not unexpected as HP officers, of all kinds of law enforcement officers, tend to be the least flexible and most militaristic. That’s their culture, from the first day of training until retirement. In most states, it tends to be who and what they are, though there are always institutional, and individual, exceptions.
Considering the realities of policing in contemporary America, officers must be even more public relations conscious than usual. The North Carolina Highway Patrol’s plans are not only remarkably stupid, they’re uniquely dangerous. If Governor McCrory has a clue, he’ll give himself a real legacy item and put a stop to this before it starts–unless, of course, he, or his minions, are responsible for this policy in the first place…
Stately McDaniel Manor 
I am of the opinion that – at least within a certain range of the speed limit, speeding should not be a primary offense to begin with. Get in/cause an accident, blow a stop sign, run a red light, drive recklessly? Speeding can be a secondary citation to the actually harmful/dangerous driving.
Other than maintaining a reasonable flow of traffic, speed limits are little more than revenue-generating malum prohibitum laws.
I was thinking along the exact same lines. This is going to have multiple levels of blowback. Most people’s only contact with the police is when they are pulled over for a traffic stop. This is going to take a lot of police supporters and put a bad taste in their mouth.
It’s going to reintroduce the idea of jury nullification, too, for the people who make it to a jury trial. “These officers have taken you off your job, and put you in that jury box… to decide a speeding offense of 1 mph over. This is still America, and the law isn’t the police — it is you, citizens of America sitting on juries. It is up to you to decide if we, as Carolinians, want to live in a state where 1 mph is the difference between going along your way or spending all day in a courtroom.”
Also, just as a point of order, the red light ticket wouldn’t be valid in Texas. TTCC 544.007 — if you have entered the intersection on a green or yellow light, then you have the right of way until you can reasonably exit the intersection. (Texas also has other common sense traffic laws, like allowing left on red from a one way to a one way.)
Just another reason not to visit NC. ='[.]’=
North Carolina did the same thing in the 70’s,as did the morons running Franklin and Courtland in Virginia.The idea is to catch tourists(notice the timing of this ‘safety measure’) this summer to balance the Carolina budget.In the 70’s,Carolina became a ‘must miss’ destination for tourists.It took years to recover.Franklin and Courtland became depressed little ghost towns in Virginia.With faster mass communications these days,it (avoiding these pits)will only happen faster,and the long lasting nature of internet posts make it last much longer.By the way,watch out especially for Camden county near Elizabeth City.It’s especially ‘you in-a heap ‘o trouble’ land for the slightest infraction.Even as far back as the 30’s when my father was a child in that area.I’ll do my part by denying the use of hunting lands I own to anybody in police or state government work until this blows over.
Several years ago my mother, who was then 87, was driving with a friend on an interstate in Illinois. The two ladies were chatting, and my mother failed to notice her speed had crept up to well over the limit. She was soon pulled over by an Illinois state trooper who informed her she had been traveling 83 MPH in a 65 zone!
After running her driving record and determining she had never before received a traffic violation of any kind, he gave her a written warning and told her to have a nice day.
My opinion of the ISP went up by about 3,000%. The troopers in North Carolina could take a lesson.
Generally,. my thoughts as I drive start with: not causing a police officer to have to make a dangerous traffic stop. I think in the case at hand: it causes more dangerous traffic stops for law enforcement so I’m against it for that reason.
I’ve been good at that: last traffic stop (and moving violation) was Nov. 17,1969. Two additional stops since then were because of a lost expiration date sticker on my (Michigan ) plate and one other stop was so the officer (State Police) could ask me why I pulled over when he was after ANOTHER driver! LOL (we had a good laugh over that because he’d turned on his flasher as I was passing and saw the flasher and thought it was for me)
I always thought it was about 6-7 MPH. If speed limit was 65 I will drive about 71-72, if I am not late that is. If I’m late the fastest I’ll drive is 80 and usually they’ll be many cars driving the same speed.
Dear styro1:
To be safe, I usually drive no more than 4 MPH over the posted limit on highways. I’m often passed like my vehicle is chained to a bridge abutment, but I’ve never had a citation for speeding, which leads me to conclude that my surmise about police psychology, at least in this, is correct.
Mike,
I have driven from Florida to southern CA three times and from Maine to Florida three times (once in one direction and twice in the other direction for both trips).
.
From these trips, I came to the conclusion that there are fifty feifdoms (not states) each with their own rules (and each with their own idiosincratic method of driving).
In California, tailgating is incredibly common (and being cited for for this offense is rare).
In Massachuestts, for example, the turn signal is utilized infrequently, often seen as a sign of weakness or mistakenly letting other drivers know of your intentions as a bad thing lest they cut you off). In Ciaro, Egypt, I found that the locals do not use their headlights at night, instead they mostly use their “parking lights” and only turn on their lights intermittently to express outrage or signal to other drivers.
Those few who have their headlights on at night continuously are nearly run off the road as for the locals they are displaying sig s of weakness.
.
That being said, my trips from Florida to Maine to visit my mother are very interesting in terms of speed limit enforcement.
I flew to Maine to pick up an older car my mother was retiring after nearly two decades of faithful service.
I drove the car back.
Most of New England was uneventful.
New York State was skipped largely by going past/through NYC.
NYC was tough due to traffic volume, but the volume of traffic had the effect of keeping speed limits less of a factor.
Leaving New York, entering New Jersey was the first scary part of the journey.
After interminable waits on the GW bridge, traffic opens up (the throttle, literally).
Posted speed limit, 55. Signs indicate tickets would be issued by cameras and tickets mailed to the offenders.
Average cars were doing 70 to 85 in the right, “slow” lane while others were going a bit faster.
I did between 70 and 75 with tailgaters on me worse than in socal.
Luckily, though the tailgaters gave me pause and worry, they largely blocked any camera view of my license plate.
I am not averse to driving fast, i just prefer to do so away from other cars, besides, I still didnt feel all that comfortable with this nearly two decade old car.
I dont like to drive at night much anymore and i get tired after hours of driving.
I knew that going past the DC metro area was going to be tough (and hotels expensive) so i put in early with the goap of getting up early and making my way past the nation’s capital in the early morning rush.
Well, there are like two kinds of rush hour in morning.
Early and late.
Late rush hour traffic (in the am) is maximimally congested and speeds can come to a crawl. Speedi g is not much of a concern.
I try to imagine what someone driving the same road daily feels.
The daily driver knows the road very well. It is their daily commute. They know every bend in the road, every reverse banked turn and where police like to. Atch speeders, etc.
Me?
Just passing through. I dont know each turn in the road.
Ironically, the DC metro area has the highest income in the nation.
And the nicest, fastest cars i have ever seen.
Having gotten onto the road early enough, i imagine most would enjoy a largely traffic congestion free road that they may either rarely see or have to vet up hours early to enjoy.
If i recall correctly, i think posted speed limits were 65 and the drivers were all doing, seemingly, 75 to 100 mph or more, around turns, etc.
I didnt stay long enough to learn what the local indiosyncracies of driving were, ut i imagined it had to do with ignoring speed limits.
Maine to New York and down to DC, tolls abound and speed limits were largely ignored.
From Virginia to Florida, tolls were almost unheard of and following speed limits became more commonplace.
On my 1,400 mile journey, I found the South Carlina State Police the most strict when it came to speed limit enforcement.
Not as bad as mentioned for N Carolina, but it seemed that doing as little as 3 or 4 to 7 or 9 mph above the speed limit was being strictly enforced.
There were no tolls, i noticed, and the police all seemed to have very new Dodge Chargers.
I came to the conclusoon that rather than make all pay for use of the road, it was those who exceeded the speed limit by a minimap amount led you to recieve a ticket that would cover the road wear and tear expenses of many other drivers.
(Posted from my supossedly smart phone).
Mike, thanks for this. Your insights are most appreciated
Just saw (and thought) much the same this morning. I drove down to the LA area to see my folks for Easter weekend. In the 20-mile stretch between south Vegas and the California state line I counted at least 15 NHP guys running traffic stops. It definitely made me wonder about the intelligence and competence of whoever decided that was a good idea. Pulling that on the first big travel weekend before summer in the current climate isn’t doing them any PR favors.
Dear VegasChris:
Keep in mind when you’re seeing that sort of thing, you’re seeing the orders of high ranking police officers, often handed down from high ranking politicians. A few officers-2-3–doing that sort of thing usually reflects a spontaneous decision based entirely on the observations and goals of the involved officers. Fifteen come from a higher pay grade.
I think one of the biggest problems with this is that we all know that the cops routinely break the very law they’re now going to be sticklers about. Just this week, I was driving on the interstate going with the flow of traffic (about 15mph over the speed limit) and an unmarked police car with no lights or siren blew by me going at least 10 over that. He never pulled anyone over or shows any signs of speeding for a reason other than that he was in a hurry. Probably on his way to work.
I bought my motorcycle from a local detective (over 12 years ago now). I rode in his truck to the DMV to transfer the title. It was during rush hour. On the way to the highway, he took us down small residential streets to avoid the traffic of the larger roads. He ran anywhere from 15 to 25mph over the speed limit and ran at least two stop signs. When we got to the highway, he got in the HOV lane and put the pedal to the metal. We actually passed a marked police cruiser. He slowed down beside the cruiser long enough to wave and make sure the officer driving recognized him before speeding back up and blowing by.
Just two examples of many. We’ve all seen them. And we’re supposed to think we’ve done some terrible thing driving a couple over the limit?
I see this the same way I see celebrities chastising us for ruining the planet for having the audacity to drive cars, fly commercial and use electricity: I’ll believe they really think it’s a problem when they start living like it’s a problem.
This is nothing more than revenue generation. I’ve pissed more than one cop off in my life by asking him “I bet you never thought you were signing up to be a glorified tax collector when you joined the department did you?”
Mike , your statement below is Libel. Period end of story
Let’s review, gentle readers. Law enforcement officers around the nation are in trouble. Not only are the President of the United States and the DOJ stirring up public hatred of the police, not only is distrust of government, and its most visible symbols–police officers–at an all time high, not only are officers being murdered for no reason other than that they are police officers, the NC troopers decide it’s time to really piss off not only North Carolina citizens, but anyone experiencing the misfortune to drive through that state.
Nowhere has the President or the DOJ stirred up hatred with Law enforcement. Law Enforcement’s own actions have done that all by themselves
Tony, I can be the loudest critic of a corrupt cop but you are incorrect.
The President and DOJ are always making immediate statements (without gathering facts first) that make all LEO into reactionary thugs. It has become so hostile from both levels of government that I’ve all but gone silent, even when I watch video evidence of a corrupt coverup possibility. Not libel at all!
Cambridge and Ferguson: just two examples of Obama and the DOJ stirring up anti-police sentiment.
Dear Tony:
Ah. Nowhere have the President and DOJ stirred up hatred? We have a President–and a DOJ that follows his lead like a corrupt puppy–that, whenever Islamists attack, invariably lectures Americans about how peaceful Muslims are, and about how we must never be angry with Muslims for such actions, lest we be labeled–shudder–islamophobic. But when police officers do their jobs properly, when they act entirely within the law (Ferguson, Professor Gates, etc.), Mr. Obama not only refuses to call for calm and reason, he looses the DOJ on the police, and he immediately attacks the police, all police officers, everywhere.
Where is the wise statesman assuring the nation–correctly–that the overwhelming majority of police officers and agencies are honorable, professional, and dedicated to upholding the rule of law and the Constitution?
Indeed, some agencies and individual officers are corrupt and badge heavy, but they remain, thankfully, an aberration. Even the North Carolina HP leadership may be nothing more than badly misguided rather than corrupt. Each and every [police officer that misbehaves or commits crimes should be prosecuted as necessary, and disciplined or fired, as necessary and as the facts dictate.
Want to be angry with someone? Be angry with the local politicians that abet and abide police misconduct. Throw the bastards out on their ears. Even better, be angry with the citizens that don’t throw the bastards out on their ears. We get precisely the politicians, and therefore, the police, we deserve.
Actually, I’m surprised it took so long to happen. With the recession causing revenue deficits and budget cuts in every state, I’m surprised that every governor in the country hasn’t ordered his/her troopers to issue more tickets. It’s easy money, and the politicians don’t take the hit. The locals blame the cops, not their political bosses, and the people just passing through can’t vote there anyway. It’s a win-win for the politicians.
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They’re probably just going to continue enforcing the speed limit the same way they have been. It’s a scare tactic to get people to obey the speed limit, and a preemptive effort to squelch any criticism they may get from speeders crying about chickenshit stops. After all, if it’s known that they allow 10 mph over, wouldn’t they get a lot of squawking about 11 or 12 mph over? That’s only 1 or 2 mph over the “limit”, and I’m getting pulled over for THAT!
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I just got a chickenshit ticket.. The guy said i didnt stop for a stop sign.. And i did.. He said i didnt wait 3 seconds.. Lol then gave me another because my driver side front tire was low tread.. Such bs.. Iv bought used tires with less tread.
It’s very frustrating to see these young boys racing their Dodge chargers along highway 64. They have policeman costumes on but, they don’t have flashing lights or sirens. They don’t use turning signals because as someone previously stated the NC driver seems to think it’s some kind of sign of being an overly cautious driver who must not watch NASCAR. Surely these aren’t real policeman are they? It’s hard to respect law enforcement when I can see they are obviously not obeying their own laws. It’s like someone standing there with a lit cigarette in their mouth telling someone else they can’t smoke here. It’s a blatant display of bullying and power abuse. I had a DA in Asheboro NC treat me so rudely in a court room once that it cemented my belief about corrupt over zealous law enforcement officials. I had a black eye from a work accident and I think this elderly out of shape woman (I think woman) thought I was a trouble maker. She yelled at me and embarrassed me in front of a court room full of people. I’ve often daydreamed about meeting her outside of his or her bubble and kicking her cane out from under her. The abuse of her authority and her decision to make herself feel better at making me feel worse was enough for me to accept the fact that many of these officials are just making a paycheck and are not the least bit interested in actually doing what we are paying them to do.