Officers in a mid-sized community near Los Angeles issued 140 cellphone tickets during May. How does their enforcement pattern compare with similar efforts in Bakersfield and Fresno?

Police all over The Golden State focused on these violations during National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. El Monte Police Sergeant Jimmie Pitts said that most of the tickets were issued for talking or texting while driving. The way the law is currently written, using a phone for another purpose, such as browsing the Web or using an app, is legal. Sgt. Pitts did say that one woman received a citation because she was applying makeup on the freeway and nearly collided with a police motorcycle.

Funding for the STEP campaign came from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration via the California Office of Traffic Safety.

Targeted Enforcement

Some defense lawyers salivate when they read about saturation enforcement or a Sustained Traffic Enforcement Program, because it gives them an additional bullet in their guns when they go to trial. Because, to borrow a phrase, when you look for something, you will find it. If officers receive instructions to write more speeding tickets or cellphone tickets or whatever, they will sometimes issue borderline citations to pad their numbers and please their bosses.

In a saturation enforcement plan, officers are typically pulled off their usual patrol areas and told to enforce a certain section of the Vehicle Code to the exclusion of some others. In a STEP campaign, the government is paying the department to write a certain kind of ticket. Either way, officers have an incentive to write tickets for the sake of writing tickets.

Getting Legal Help

The aggressive attorneys at Bigger & Harman, APC, are committed to giving individuals a voice when dealing with speeding and traffic tickets. Call today at 661-349-9300 or email attorney@markbigger.com to receive the personal professional attention you deserve. En español, llame al 661-349-9755.