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they dont care if you write a thousand tickets a month, doesnt get u promoted to sgt. it goes to seniority and how well u test and interview.
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You are absolutely right, maroman. Thing of it is, interviews are a huge part of the equation. So if you score a hundred on the written, you are doing very well, but if you bomb on the interview, you can still be surpassed by someone who scored lower on the written. Now, the interviews USUALLY (Different towns have different issues) consist of the knowledge of Attorney General guidelines, state traffic and criminal law and departmental policies and procedures. There is also a portion of interview that deals with the officer's resume. What have you done while on the job here? Now, if you walk into that interview with a lot of in service training under your belt, you're doing well. You're doing even better if you are an aggressive officer who doesn't just sit in the car for eight hours doing nothing unless you're called.
What I'm saying is, in police departments, opportunities for career enhancement go to those who show self initiative, such as interviewing suspicious persons and making motor vehicle stops and issuing summonses. The aggressive officers are the ones who are sent to schools to better themselves, and they are the ones who get promoted. So yes, cops do better their careers by writing tickets.
I'm the son of a cop who just retired, and I have a lot of friends on The Job too, so I'm not badmouthing any of them or trying to 'take anything out' on them. The fact is, the police department IS a business in some respects. If the town council is going to okay a department's request for more police cars, you'd better believe they're going to expect something in return. The fact is, DWI checkpoints generate money. Am I saying do away with them? No. I'm saying that if you are driving through one with no front plate or a light out or a bad inspection sticker, it's probably going to generate a summons. That was my point.
Now, for procamaro, I too disagree with being pulled over 'for no reason.' I'd just rather hear the cop out and answer any questions peacefully without starting a debate on the side of the road. You're not going to win it there. If you're going to win it, it'll be in court. Arguing with the cop isn't going to solve the problem. What's next? Refusing to pull over because you believe you did nothing wrong? Just do what you gotta do and move on. Best of all, don't give the cop any ammunition. A lot of stops are recorded now and the tape is discoverable (Can be seen in court), so it goes a lot better if you're calm and not argumentative.