SLOW DOWN: NC State Highway Patrol Commander Tells ‘Lazy’ Troopers to Write More Tickets

RALEIGH – With COVID restrictions came an enduring slowdown in regular routines, less reasons (or executive prohibitions) to go here or there. That means less traffic, and less traffic means less traffic tickets, which, in turn, means less revenue for the agencies and government functions those tickets help fund.

That’s a problem from the perspective of those agencies. Solution? Get those lazy troopers to write more tickets and get the revenues up. Oh, those aren’t our words, but those from Troop Commander Captain Neil Denman in an email to Troop G covering much of western North Carolina.

According to WBTV, Denman send en email to supervisors complaining about the persistent drought in tickets — $$$ — and said troopers needed to get back to work and actually “earn their pay.”

From WBTV:

“[…] Denman’s email focused on the low number of tickets written in 2020 and told supervisors in the troop they would be held accountable if the output didn’t improve.

“As you can see by the numbers most members are not putting forth any enforcement effort and district supervisors are not holding their feet to the fire,” the email said. “In the coming weeks that is going to change.”

Statewide, the NCSHP wrote 60,000 fewer tickets in 2020 than in previous years, which means a significant drop off in ticket revenue for the state and state court system.

It is time that Troop G gets back to work and the lazy troopers start earning their pay,” Denman said at the end of his missive. […]”

Looks like drivers should start watching their speed a little closer around Asheville.

Ironically, even if drivers did just that, and brought down accidents and reduced risks through better driving, Commander Denman still wouldn’t be happy. If not enough drivers are earning tickets, just lower the bar. Contrary to any legitimate core mission of the State Highway Patrol, the government agency has evidently been perverted into one more revenue collecting entity.

It’s difficult to see the approach as anything more than existing to fund its own existence at the direct expense of the People.

Meanwhile, most of those troopers, we’re sure, have been doing plenty to serve and protect that didn’t involve arbitrarily taking their money.

Read more about the push for more aggressive ticketing here.

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