Quote:As far as quotas go, who cares? Don't speed.

If only it were that simple. I recall Waldo in particular employing a new trick with the "move over" law shortly before I left FL for college, where one squad car would nail someone for speeding, pull way off the side of the road, then a second officer would stand there and wave people to the side and ticket them for not slowing to 25 below the speed limit or whatever for the cop who was 50 feet off the road anyway. As I recall, as long as Waldo kept their ticket revenue at less than 25% speeding, their setup was perfectly legal. That type of scam is replicated nationwide. In Texas, they love their double-yellow lines, and some municipalities will ticket you for crossing one even if you crossed one in the process of entering an area where you could legally make the turn, or if you crossed the edge of a double-yellow while making a legal turn. Cell phone laws are also popular, because they change from state to state, and the odds of someone from out of state violating them are high. I think there are still a couple of states out there that don't allow right turns on red; I'd love to see their ticket numbers.

 

Point being, it doesn't have to be speed, and most "quotas" aren't specifically linked to speeding tickets, just traffic infractions. If the local cop sees a car they like, especially if that car has out of state plates, they can always invent a reason to pull you over and write you a ticket, and in the small town kangaroo courts, those tickets will stick. If you're targeting nonresidents, virtually none of those tickets will end up on appeal, and the vast majority will just be paid by mail. It's a good old-fashioned strong arm scheme, and simply adhering to the speed limit doesn't do anything to make you safe from targeting.

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