I spoke a while back with the father of a friend, born in 1938, who lived in the NY/NJ area most of his life. He told me that when he was young and was pulled over by the police, he used to hand over his wallet (with the drivers license visible in it) to the policeman, with a $10 or $20 bill casually sticking out and that this would get him out of a ticket. I asked him how often policemen would take the money and he said, almost every time. How prevalent were these things back in the day and when did they go away? I'm 41 and I've never witnessed anything like this.
I'm 35 and remember when you could pay tickets on the spot, not exactly bribery, but not sure often it went where it was supposed to
Never seen it and also never tried it. Growing up in upstate NY it seemed the Troopers didn't really have a personality .... lol Figured it was just better off to be polite.
I had cops offer to take me to atm to get off. Didn't agree to as they could turn it around on me as if I was bribing them. Bribery vs extortion........
Back in the day in SC (70's), tickets were only about $20-30, as long as you weren't being TOO excessive in speed. And you could pay them on the spot to the officer. Tickets were also self duplicating and serialized.
Growing up in upstate NY it seemed the Troopers didn't really have a personality .... lol Thats the difference between living in Chicago, OR dealing with the State Troopers. They were a bit more sworn to duty and usually more professional than a beat cop looking for free donuts. ws
Yeah, I got 2 tickets in Florence, SC in 1974 and both wanted CASH or go to jail or come back to court which with Maryland tags they figured wasn't going to happen. Didn't help that I sat on boss hog's hat when I got into passenger seat of cruiser to discuss....... Didn't know that a 3 point turn on a country road was reckless driving....I swear there was a sign pointing that way to get back on 95.....a setup, I say....
There's a town on the north side of the county north of me, Fultondale Alabama. US 31 and I-65 cut through the middle of Fultondale. Fultondale Police were known to pull over drivers for any and all infractions. They gave out loads of DUI tickets. A DUI conviction in Alabama requires a period of suspension of liscence. and attending a certain number of AA meetings. And a probation period. A probation officer realized that a some (Fultondale convictions) didn't have the liscence suspensions as they should. It turns out that Fultondale figured out that if they didn't send the suspension request to the state , they could keep the state's share ($500) of the $1,000 fine. Fultondale's city officials had recently moved into a new city hall . The old city hall still contained all of the traffic citation records. When The probation officer got the State Police nosing around Fultondale, the old city hall mysteriously burned down. And was a complete loss. This was about fifteen years ago
You sat on a SC state trooper's HAT... and you are still around to tell about it? DAY-UMM!!!You hadn't noticed all those swamps around you? There wasn't anything around Florence back then for 20 miles... except Darlington and that only counts two weekends a year (NASCAR). The cash was a BOND, not an admission of guilt, unless you failed to appear (likely for out-of-staters), then the "bond" was forfeited, AND you were found guilty, AND got a notice for failure to appear. Not double jeopardy, it was TRIPLE jeopardy. Fortunately not many states were reciprocal with South Carolina's fines, points, etc. I know. I used to not worry about any tickets I got out of state, and being in the military out of state almost all of the time, I got more than my fair share of them!!! then I got a letter from home, forwarded to me. My license was suspended! Twelve points in less than thirty days. SR-22 (high risk insurance for three years!) and new car payments.
Bribe has such a bad connotation, I like to think of it as greasing the gear works of society. That way things go smooth.
Yeah, I remember it was $90 out of state bail bond that was added to the ticket. Cop said had to pay it or go to pokey. I told him I didn't have it and he said what about your two buddies in the car. He got them to empty their wallets..... Fortunately we had just gotten gas or we would not have made it home.....none of us even had a credit card back then. My dad had just wired me money via Western Union the day before to get home.....a little different back then.
I was fraudulently nailed in Lawty, FL some years back. $140 for exceeding the speed limit by 2 mph. I did pay the ticket, then called triple A, and the Mass registry of motor vehicles to tell them that this was bogus and I was hoping for no points. The RMV said that they knew all about Lawtey, Waldo, Stark, and Hawthorne FL and they didn't give out points for their tickets.
Same here, in Montana when I was a kid it was $5 speeding tickets up to 80 mph in the 65. My Dad always had about ten 5's on him. Like you said, who knows how much went where it was supposed to, and how many times the cop got a beer or two after his shift with it.
