For the second time in two months, officers in San Mateo County took a page from the CHP’s playbook in Kern County and participated in a ticket frenzy.

Officers descended on predetermined locations in San Mateo and Foster City to issue citations pertaining to a wide range of driving habits. Most of the 187 tickets issued were for cellphone/texting violations, speeding, and seatbelt violations. The effort also caught four drivers with no license or a suspended license; officials vow that the stepped-up enforcement campaigns will continue throughout the year.

Peace officers from 13 different offices participated in the effort.

Targeted Enforcement

Focused efforts are becoming a thing of the past in other states, but given the high penalty assessments in California, these campaigns remain cost-effective in Ridgecrest. Some observers have criticized the search-and-destroy philosophy associated with these efforts. They point to instances like a 2014 ticket frenzy in Delhi, India. Officers wrote 1,600 tickets in two days but failed to make a dent in the city’s traffic congestion problems.

STEP campaigns, MEP campaigns, and saturation enforcement campaigns are all essentially the same thing. Officers are pulled off their normal schedules and routes, transferred to a certain area of town, and told to write as many citations as possible for a certain violation or violations; the one difference is that more elaborate STEP campaigns are usually federally funded.

All these efforts have another thing in common. Many times, since they are under pressure to write tickets, officers issue citations in borderline incidents which are difficult to prove in court.

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.