Ticket Quotas

The recent dispute with some Los Angeles police officers complaining about being forced to meet a ticket quota (Metro, Feb. 19 and March 2) would be funny if the basic matter were not so serious. I find getting a traffic citation as disagreeable an experience as anyone else does, but I also am aware that a motor police officer who cannot write 10 tickets a day must be asleep or have a severe writing problem. Any motor police officer should be able to write 10 tickets an hour at any of several hundred intersections in the city just for running red lights or making illegal left turns.

The citation writing process is cumbersome and could undoubtedly be simplified. The procedure recently introduced in Pasadena of issuing speeding citations based on photo-radar detection (Metro, Feb. 23) could be adapted to the two other traffic violations mentioned with a greatly increased conviction rate, which would be desirable. More importantly it would probably greatly reduce the incidence of these violations with greatly improved safety to me and other drivers who are often victims of the crazies out there.

As for the complaining officers there is still plenty of police work for them to do.

C.J. WELCH

Los Angeles