‘Ticket Master’ No Help to Police

The Dec. 2 article “Ticket Master,” profiling the traffic cop Ed Kline is of great interest.

In today’s atmosphere, respect for the police is getting smaller every day. The actions of Kline just show in part why this is. Instead of a peace officer, he is just an income producer for the city. Every automobile that passes through Anaheim is possible prey. Sort of like the highwayman of old.

Los Angeles, like so many other cities, has police that are dedicated “to protect and serve.” Anaheim’s police motto seems to be “to extort and gouge.”

JACK SMITH

Lake Forest

I read with interest your article on Officer Kline and his “legendary” prowess at issuing traffic citations in the city of Anaheim.

I, too, have had the dubious pleasure of being stopped and cited by Kline, but chose to challenge the ticket in court and had it dismissed. What many people fail to realize is that the use of radar is an illegal speed trap under the California law unless the speed limit is shown to be justified by a traffic study.

This state law is intended to prevent towns from setting speed limits that are too low in order to allow officers to write speeding tickets to boost local revenue.

It is interesting to consider this in light of the description provided in the article of Kline as “the city’s own personal revenue generator,” who has “by conservative estimates” written enough tickets to equal “at least $1 million for city coffers.”

I personally find it hard to square this description with Kline’s avowed interest in “public safety.” His interest in fact appears to be limited to the number of citations he can rack up and the revenue this in turn generates for the city.

When Kline cited me, he did so by using radar in an area where the posted speed limit was not justified by a traffic survey as required by law.

It is unfortunate that the article chose to lionize Kline for his zealous ticket-writing efforts, rather than explore the reasons why, in his words, about half of those who challenge his citations win (a remarkably high percentage in Traffic Court).

GEOFFREY S. FEARNS

Brea