Area police moderate when it comes to writing tickets
Here's to the good sense of our western suburban police forces! Well, most of 'em anyway. According to a Sun-Times report, when it comes to pulling the ticket trigger, our local boys (and women) in blue tend to go for the warning pad first.
You see, state law requires police to record the outcome of every traffic stop, so the Sun-Times painstakingly went over 2.5 million Illinois 2008 stops by 950 law enforcement agencies. Then, for each agency, they determined the likelihood of a motorist being issued a warning versus a citation.
For example, Chicago tickets 74 percent of drivers pulled over. Not much of a surprise for a city that views law enforcement as taxation. Our state average is a somewhat more reasonable 61 percent.
But upon a closer look at the data I noticed, from Aurora north to South Elgin, the odds of getting a ticket averaged an eminently equitable 37 percent. Our group of seven suburbs including Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles, South Elgin, the unincorporated territory covered by the Kane County sheriff, and Elburn.
Elburn? Yes, Elburn! Under relatively new Police Chief Steven Smith that former small town made famous by traffic ticket warning Web sites now hands out warnings 60 percent of the time. Way to go Elburn!
South Elgin comes in the highest of our municipal group, but not by much, issuing citations at a 44 percent rate. Police Chief Chris Merritt tends to take a common sense approach to law enforcement despite the challenges of a still evolving village.
Next we have the Kane County Sheriff's Department, writing tickets only 42 percent of the time. Sheriff Pat Perez told me, "We encourage officers to take into account the circumstances of the stop as well as the driver's previous record. If at all possible, we like to give them the benefit of the doubt."
St. Charles issues warnings at 60 percent of their stops, while the Batavia police come in at 64 percent.
Aurora was another surprise. I tend to think of big city officers as being less forgiving, but that isn't the case with the Aurora Police Department. They write tickets only 41 percent of the time.
"We always look at the goal -- reduction of accidents," Aurora Chief Greg Thomas said. "Our officers use their discretion to get motorists to comply with the law." Thomas also told me accidents are down 17 percent from the previous year.
The city in which you're most likely to get a warning is Geneva. They warn drivers at an 84 percent clip! Echoing Chief Thomas, Geneva Police Department Commander Julie Nash said, "The ultimate goal of the GPD is to make the roads safer. If that goal is achieved by writing warning tickets, then we consider that a success. Traffic accidents in Geneva have gone down since last year."
On the other end of the spectrum we have North Aurora and West Chicago handing out tickets at 82 and 94 percent of their stops respectively. I find myself avoiding both towns.
Topping the list is Maple Park, issuing citations a resounding 100 percent of the time. Mayor Kathleen Curtis told the Sun-Times one officer was responsible for most of the town's 274 2008 tickets and he has since resigned. She said, "...we are now approaching it from a warning-first type of situation."
Some chiefs whose forces ranked high on the ticket list said the state data was inaccurate. But that sounds an awful lot like some lame excuse a motorist might use to try and get out of a speeding ticket.
Aurora Police Lieutenant and Beacon-News columnist Kristin Ziman previously wrote, "Every traffic stop is a commercial for the Aurora Police Department. It's an opportunity to leave our citizens feeling good about their police force." Amen!
Interestingly, most of our group of seven don't employ red-light cameras, and those that do don't write right-on-red violations. It appears traffic law enforcement philosophy, indeed, stems from the perception of the goal of each stop. Is it to raise consciousness or revenue?
We all know reward works far better than punishment. When an officer gives me a break, I tend to not want to tempt the fates a second time. And the 2009 accident data from Aurora and Geneva certainly support the wisdom of the warning-first policy.
I'm sure every local police officer has had some unhappy motorist accuse them of "filling their quota." But with a few exceptions, that's certainly not the case out here. Odds are, if you get a ticket, you deserve it!
jeffwardsun@sbcglobal.net
