Ticket Blitz

The other day at work my partner had called in sick so I was in a patrol car. While driving around the boss came along side me and told me to pull over. He had told me that he wanted everyone to come in with a few "pinks" (cop talk for tickets) and that I should concentrate my efforts on being part of the team. As soon as he drove away I shook my head. This is what has really bothered me since becoming a police officer. Policing has gotten far away from what I thought was the ultimate goal which is helping people and turned into a mere numbers game. This is all because of Compstat which was developed in order to spot crime patterns in order to deploy your resources better and be a more effective police department. Bullshit!!! What they do instead is measure how many tickets were written during the same time period last year and demand that more be written so that the numbers will be down. I've been on the job for a little over 6 years and am way past the save the world mentality of a rookie. I believe that the true purpose of writing someone a ticket is to somehow try and change their behavior in order to prevent a future accident or correct an unsafe condition. Issuing 1 ticket for someone who blows a red light in the downtown area is more effective then writing 6 to a guy who rolls through a stop sign on a dead end street. Being that I was told to do something by my superior I decided I would only write one ticket that way I was still following his order but not going overboard. While driving one of my co-workers passed me going the opposite way and he was on his cell phone while driving. That is so unprofessional and perhaps my biggest pet peeve. He sees nothing wrong with pulling someone else over for talking on their phone but assumes its OK for him since he is a cop. Wrong again. When I was a rookie in the NYPD an old timer gave me some sound advice. He told me that while driving around in the patrol car you have 2 options. You could drive fast with no seat belt on and make turns without signalling and roll through red lights and disobey all traffic laws like a lot of cops or you could be the example of how to drive. I chose the latter and believe that it is the only option. Professionalism is my biggest attribute as a cop and I owe it all to the military. I always maintain my fitness, make sure that my cruiser is washed, uniform neat and pressed, shoes shined and have my hat on. As an officer your appearance dictates whether you seem to have your shit together or not. By doing these small things I believe that when I arrive on scene people see a professional and immediately have some respect. Now it is up to me to maintain their respect by how I talk to them and handle the situation. One time when I was younger I remember being in an accident and as the cop approached I noticed his car had bird shit all over it, he was extremely fat and his uniform was a wreck. My first thought was "Great, my first accident and they send this moron". I never want to be that guy. I don't mean to rant all day so I'll stop for now. Maybe I should start studying and become a boss.