Tuesday, March 20, 2012

No Quotas in @Arlingtonva Police Department?? Really??? #bikedc

Controversy is swirling over whether there is quotas for ticketing for Arlington Police Department. The Police Chief has rescinded the memo in question, clearly implicitly conceding that the memo was a bad idea (even though his excuse was that he is rescinding it because of 'confusion' - sure, read the memo and see how confused you are).  The Police Chief states definitively that "there are no quotas in Arlington."

Okay.... here's the problem with that.  ACPD are so MASSIVELY selective in their traffic enforcement.  There are a few spots where you will regularly see ACPD police setting up traps - they dont have a correlation to the most dangerous traffic spots in Arlington - and all you can think is "it must be quota time."  Traffic enforcement is almost entirely absent anywhere else.  Traffic enforcement is almost entirely absent - even at the trap site - for infractions outside of the trap.  One of the big traps is Left Turns from East Bound Lee Hwy (Old Dominion) onto Lorcom Lane.  The officer will sit there, busily racking up illegal-left-turn tickets - but ignoring everything else that is going wrong with that intersection (which is a terrible intersection and marked as dangerous one the Arlington Bike Map).  

The Police Chief said we all have performance expectations - he joked with the journalists that their editors must have performance expectations for reporting (ha ha ha - no one laughed).  

Chief of Police Doug Scott, here is our performance expectation:  we would like to not die on Arlington roads. If there are no quotas in ACPD, then traffic enforcement should be about safety, not tickets.  If what you say is true, prove it.  Station police officers at one of the worst intersections in the county: Lee Hwy and Lynn Street - calm down the traffic and make that intersection safer.  Setting up regular traps at selective spots where tickets are easy to write (but the danger is less than clear) contradicts the claim that their aint no quotas.

1 comment:

  1. I got nailed at that intersection going through it the first time last friday. The signage is confusing at best, left (arrow) only, and immediately after the intersection, there are two left turn lanes leading onto the highway, the left land is right in front. No street lines to assist. Seriously considering contesting it.

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