SWAN-Elgin

Likelihood of traffic ticket depends where you’re pulled over

Stopped by police? Depending on where you were pulled over, you are either guaranteed to get a ticket — or you could drive away scot-free.

In south suburban University Park, for instance, don’t even think about asking for mercy. Every motorist stopped there in 2008 received a ticket.

In fact, according to state data analyzed by the Chicago Sun-Times, there are 35 suburbs where at least nine out of 10 stopped motorists got a ticket in 2008.

But things aren’t so rough everywhere. In Elgin, only 53 percent of drivers stopped by police end up with tickets. And statewide, the average is even lower: 61 percent.

Verbal or written warnings did not count as tickets in the state data.

The Sun-Times analyzed the records from every traffic stop in Illinois, which police are required by state law to record, whether a ticket is issued or not. The analysis included data on more than 2.5 million stops by 950 police agencies in Illinois.

Elgin Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Swoboda said it is left to an individual officer’s discretion at the time of a stop whether to issue a ticket, or administer a written or verbal warning when other violations — such as driving under the influence — are not a factor.

“We don’t take the approach that every stop will result in a ticket,” Swoboda said. “Our general feeling is that we write tickets to change behavior in an effort to reduce crashes. If an officer feels he or she can accomplish that goal by talking with the person and explaining to them what they did wrong, and they feel that’s sufficient, then we would support the officer in not writing a ticket.”

Aggrieved motorists claim the tougher towns are writing tickets to bring money into town coffers. But officials in those cities said they do so to ensure safe roads. Others said the state’s data might be inaccurate.

Disputing numbers

One community where the numbers are in dispute is the village of Gilberts, which was listed as having the highest ticket rate throughout the Fox Valley at 99.9 percent.

Interim Police Chief Nicholas Weiss said that for 2008, Gilberts police recorded 1,481 moving violations out of 1,824 stops, a ticket rate of only about 81.2 percent.

“I’m not aware of any police department that issues a citation every time there’s a traffic stop,” he said.

Another problem with the figures, according to Weiss, is that they may not differentiate between tickets issued during routine traffic stops and those given as a result of investigation after a vehicle crash has occurred.

“It’s not unusual, particularly for accidents, to have multiple citations issued,” he said. “But we don’t issue tickets 99 percent of the time that we make a traffic stop.”

Paperwork problems?

Richton Park Police Chief Vito Mannino said he found that officers were neglecting to record stops when they didn’t issue tickets, leading the data to show that 99.8 percent of those pulled over were ticketed there. The percentage is actually lower, he says. The situation has since been corrected.

Mannino speculated that other towns, swamped by paperwork required by the state, also may be making the same mistake, resulting in misleading data.

Hazel Crest Police Chief Gary Jones said that over the last two months, his officers only ticketed about 55 percent of stopped motorists. He says state figures showing 100 percent receiving citations in 2008 are wrong.

“We make the data stop card on every stop, but I’ve been here a year and a half, and at least half of our stops are warnings. We have an aggressive stop policy, but most of those stops are educational stops.”

In Maple Park in DeKalb County, Mayor Kathleen Curtis did not dispute that 100 percent of stops resulted in tickets. But she attributed most of the town’s 274 tickets to one police officer who has since quit.

“You will probably see the ratios change because he was a tougher officer,” Curtis said. “Of course, we want a ticket given if a law is broken, but we are now approaching it from a warning-first type of situation.”

‘Gone proactive’

In some locations, police say the tougher stance is intentional. University Park Police Chief Melvin Easley said residents asked police to crack down on lead-foot drivers.

“Yes, we have gone proactive,” he said. “We had requests by our citizens to deal with speeders. Obviously that became a priority, and we made a lot of stops.”

Easley said many routine traffic stops uncover more-serious violations like driving without a license.

In Rosemont, where 98.8 percent of stopped drivers got a ticket, “officers observe violations and take appropriate enforcement action to enhance the safety of the driving public,” Rosemont Police Sgt. Keith Kania said. “The enforcement action they choose to take is consistently fair.”

Staff writer Steven Ross Johnson contributed to this report.

© Copyright 2009 Digital Chicago, Inc.