To my way of thinking, a speed trap is, in fact, an ongoing, revenue producing, assembly line of handing out tickets to anybody for anything.
However, when chronic speeding is out of control and officers work a specific area, the intent is to save lives. Drivers have criticized speed limits since the beginning of driving. I have never heard of a police officer giving a ticket to somebody who is within the limit. President Ulysses S. Grant was stopped for driving his horse team too fast in Washington. When the cop saw who it was, he said, "I'm sorry Mr. President." Grant said to the officer, "Do your duty man."
In so far as revenue generation goes, traffic citation income is actually a line item in post municipal budgets. The amount is based on an average of revenue from years past. In all the years I have been around police, government, and media, I have never once heard an official say, "get out there and hand out tickets to generate revenue."
What are quotas? Each officer is expected to preform as least as others on the department. Like any business. In manufacturing, if most workers produce 60 widgets a day, but two guys only produce 45, they are goofing off, or incompetent. If 55 sheriff's deputies each hand out an average of 60 tickets a month, but two only hand out 40, they are goofing off or incompetent.
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