Jaywalking
by The Panda Man · 06/06/2005 12:56 pmKPRC-TV brings us news that your Houston Police Department is setting aside $70,000 for officer overtime in anticipation of a three week period beginning June 13th. The money is part of a plan devised because Chief Harold Hurtt observed downtown pedestrians and cyclists disobeying traffic signals and jaywalking.
The Chief determined that something should be done about this lawlessness, and a program of observation and enforcement was devised.
Money and manpower have already been expended on the first phase:
Over a three-week period, officers observed about 7,000 pedestrians at downtown intersections during rush hour and lunchtime and determined about 25 percent of them broke the law.
The enforcement phase of the plan will see officers handing out warnings and citations ranging from $1-200 for both jaywalking and cyclists not following traffic regulations in the downtown area.
Criticism of the plan was addressed by a police captain:
"I’ve already seen a few e-mails where there’s some criticism that we’re spending our time on jaywalking, versus robbers and murderers," she said. "But if people think of this as a little controversial, it gets them talking.”
"It gets them paying attention to the subject and maybe that will direct its way into complying when they are standing on the street corner."
Perhaps this effort will inspire the Mayor to expand his red light camera plan to include pedestrians.
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Meanwhile, back at the crime lab, where the guilty go free and the innocent are convicted…..
Keep in mind that this push for jaywalking revenue…err…I mean public safety is taking $70,000 in overtime that could be spent trying to keep the extremely violent MS-13 gang from strengthening their move into Houston. Then again, the officers writing these jaywalking tickets will probably get much more credit under Chief Hurtt’s new quota…err…I mean productivity system than the oficers trying to arrest violent gang members. So I guess as long as they are bringing in revenue…err…I mean being productive it is ok right?
When will we stop using HPD as a revenue stream and let them go back to law enforcement?
With all the things HPD has to worry about, this one is for the books. Jaywalking!!! What hard working police officer is going to take the time to write all those tickets? They have enough time directing traffic through downtown constuction to bother with this. This is another great program like the red light cameras and Safe Tow. I see it as a way to make some more money from already existing laws, and divert the officers from the work they relly need to be doing.
The city of Houston has done it again- they have hired another Keystone Kop as PC. But with a liberal Democrat as mayor, what would you expect?