Maybe. But keep in mind that traffic violations are the only offense that the law has an established “warning”.
Petty theft, misdemeanor battery, disorderly conduct, etc, etc… None of those infractions have clauses in the law that allow for you to be told “don’t do it again” and set you on your way.
This is because the law recognizes people slip up now and then and as a society we’ve established a mercy clause of sorts. I think everybody would be miserable if every single time they got stopped they got an expensive fine, demerit points, and higher insurance premiums.
It’s been tried and it did not lead to higher compliance rates nor safer roads.
I don’t think this is true. I’ve seen plenty of instances where cops have broken up a fight without hauling both participants into jail, or have told a bunch of college students to quiet down and go inside without citing them for drunken disorderly (or is it drunk and disorderly?) conduct.
First of all, irrelevant. Name one other violation of law that has a clause that allows for a peace officer to just warn you and not charge it. Traffic infractions routinely have 3 outcomes: Citation, Written warning, verbal warning. Name any other violation of law that has a statutory allowance for a warning with no charges issued.
Second of all, you are incorrect, at least regarding my jurisdiction. Petty theft, battery, and disorderly conduct can all be charged as civil (non-criminal) ordinance violation. So mlah.
Ummm…not in Texas. The majority of traffic violations are Class C misdemeanors, punishable by fine only. However, if there is injury or property damage or impairment of some sort (booze,drugs, etc.), the seriousness of the offense goes up, and can go into the felony levels.
In many jurisdictions (possibly most, possibly all, too many to cite) LEOs have power of discretion. Here is policy from Fredericksburg, Va., and the law is cited within. (PDF file) This is not just for traffic violations.
Yes, but the law [for the most part] does not specifically establish a warning system for such violations. Discretion and a statutory establishment of warnings is not the same thing. Some of you need to understand the difference between the two.
There isn’t. That’s my point. But for traffic there is a written warning citation that is almost identical to an actual UTC. In the space where the fine/deposit is usually written is the term N/A. On the top it says “Notice of Violation”. And on the bottom it says “Warning”. Then there is a space for the actual violation and such. The back has an area for notes and says WI DOT on it.
I don’t have the option of using something like this for any other violation of law. If I get dispatched to a supermarket because the store detective nabbed a shoplifter I don’t have a warning cite for ordinance retail theft. It just doesn’t exist. I suppose a local municipality could have them on their own but I’ve never seen them.
ETA: I almost never use the written warnings. Why would I go through the hassle of writing all that out for a warning when I can just issue a verbal? Their legal consequence are the same.
The fact that the citations are printed like that doesn’t mean it’s statutory. You said “statutory establishment of a warning system” and I am looking for the statute.
Dang. The gophers ate my reply. That hasn’t happened in ages.
I think I have a warning ticket book in my squad briefcase. IIRC on the back it says something akin to "under the authority of SS#xxx (state statute). I haven’t issued one of those for a long time so I’m going off memory here. I’m on vacation now for a couple of weeks so I’ll dig it out and see what it says when I get back to work.
I have no idea what happens to those warning cites after the agency copy gets turned in to the Lt’s box. I’ve handed out so few written warnings (as opposed to the multitude of verbal warnings) that I’ve never really given it a thought.
The mention of written vs verbal warnings reminds me of the continuum of discipline the Air Force has, with everything from verbal warnings all the way up to a Court Martial (the idea being to fix the Airman while it’s a minor problem rather than waiting for it to get bit enough to drop the hammer on).
One of the more amusing bits of practice is that the lowest bit of official paperwork is a Letter of Counseling. The bit before there’s any paperwork is the Verbal Counseling… which we’re supposed to create a written record of via a Memorandum which both the supervisor and the troop sign, so the supervisor can prove the verbal counseling happened later on.
That’s right, we have to create paperwork to document our specifically non-paperwork processes, because if you didn’t write it down, it didn’t happen.
As it happens, I can tell you that as of, oh, this morning, the Utah State Patrol issues written warnings in the form of a printed report with your car registration and driver’s license info, as well as the name and badge number of the officer who ticketed you. It’s very official-looking. Didn’t feel it was the most advantageous time to ask the officer how long they keep that in their system or who all gets to see it. :smack:
Which says to me that the LEO made the right decision. He sent you a message without making you suffer financially and you heeded the message, even after 12 years.
Sounds like a good result all round. (Unless of course that is the only bit of road on which you slow down )
I got pulled over one time and received a written warning from a cop that I stuck in the center console. About 6 months later I got pulled over by a different cop and when I opened my center console to get my wallet he saw the warning and told me to hand it over. After he read the date and saw it was half a year old he left me off with you guessed it, another warning, I promptly disposed of that one at the next gas station
)