Hey, ticketing is nothing more than a sport, according to this memo obtained by News 8. It appears the boys from Bethany State Police barracks must outperform the boys from Bridgeport. Nice to have your tax dollars put to work. All in the name of a game. Another memo says the winner gets pizza. Let’s eat! Check it out from News 8.
An eye-opening State Police internal memorandum obtained by WTNH News 8 challenges state troopers in one barracks to out-perform their trooper colleagues in other barracks by writing hundreds of tickets on Friday.
The memo, distributed at Troop I in Bethany by Lt. Anthony Schirillo, a Stratford resident, and obtained exclusively by News 8, basically lays down the gauntlet and any driver on a state highway is fair game.
According this document, starting Friday at midnight, patrols will be stepped up. The memo from Schirillo says in part: “… we have to issue at least 60 infractions / Misdemeanors each shift for a total of 180 infractions in order to outperform both Troop F and Troop G. … One day Troop F issued 301 tickets. Troop G responded by issuing 345 in one day. We can do better …”
“I am asking that everyone, myself included, contribute to this effort …,” said Schirillo, a former commander a Troop G in Bridgeport who was transferred to Troop I in December. “NOTE if we happen to issue 350 tickets in one day that would be stellar.”
News 8 spoke at length with Lt. Paul Vance, spokesman for the State Police. In response to the allegation that this is a quota system, which the state police union alleges, Vance said no one is given a quota, this is not a game, they don’t do that, and have never done that.
In addition to his position in the State Police, Schirillo works as the town of Stratford’s Emergency Management Director. He serves as the liaison between the mayor’s office and the emergency services, local businesses, other cities and towns and the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security during emergencies, the town’s website says. Schirlllo has worked as a state trooper for more than 23 years.
“Troopers are expected to do their job,” union president Andrew Matthews said. “We will do our job, but we don’t need to be told we need a certain number of tickets within a specified period of time.”
The state police union calls it ticket blitzing–Connecticut trying to make money off of enforcement.
“And by definition under statute a quota is a specific number of infractions or summonses within a specified period of time and that is what the email said,” said Matthews.
Which is illegal under that statute. Lt. Vance says it’s not a quota. Rather, it’s a way to motivate troopers to enhance highway safety. He says it’s something state troopers do every Spring.
Another memo obtained by News 8 says “The master sergeant and I will buy pizza for the shift with the highest total.”
*** Who knows what other type of “games” or profiling has been going on! Where’s the States Attorney General on this misuse of legal authority? Richie Blum would have been all over this trooper debacle if he were still A/G. *** Fight the Power ***
Bountygate in NFL
Ticketgate in CT
Heads should roll on this.
I say don’t pay the ticket and bring this memo to court with you. Tom Lombard said “the Judge will throw the memo out, as hearsay evidence.” Is Lombard right?
This post is directed at the commander of the State Police Barracks in Bridgeport.
I will provide pizzas to the entire Barracks if I see a proper level of patrol presence on I-95 between Bridgeport and Greenwich. I will provide double pizza to the Barracks if I see a State Policeman pulling over an 18 wheeler for speeding and/or improper lane changing and tailgating.
I drive between Greenwich and Bridgeport four times a week. Police presence is nearly non-existent. If you are lucky to see a state cop, he or she is generally traveling in the 3d lane at a speed higher than allowed and is on their cell phone.
I have never seen an 18 wheeler being cited for speeding or for anything for that matter.
We are being slaughtered on our highways because people drive with impunity. They do so confident in knowing their chances of being pulled over are way low.
Would that be any pizza? Like Remo’s Pizza 3777 Main St. Bridgeport wood firebrick oven pizza, home of the two-foot grinders for under $8.00.
Ph. 203-365-0533
And part of the problem of too many 18 wheelers is in the mayor’s chair in one of three city halls in Bridgeport. He championed a bill to build a facility on the harbor to barge in 80 containers per DAY. When Stafstrom got him elected and Stafstrom’s minions wanted to develop the harbor, Finch pulled out of his own funding ($1.5Million) to accommodate. That cost about 250 jobs and the ancillary revenues to Bridgeport and would have taken over 80 trucks off the road each way between Port Newark NJ and Bridgeport. The result would have been even greater as there would have been less fuel used, less pollution, and less wear and tear on the roadway …
I have no problem with this competition to issue speeding tickets. The real speed limit on our major highways is now 80 mph. Drive on the thruways, do 70 mph and watch how often you are passed by another car. You can’t have it both ways, highway safety and no enforcement.
Unless the trooper can substantiate the speed the driver was traveling via radar, then I would have to say the ticket can be contested. Bringing a copy of this absolutely incriminating memo to court may very well result in the dismissal of the ticket. If you think about it, how often has anyone ever seen a trooper show up in court for speeding violations in the first place? Realistically, speeding is an accepted practice on our highways. If you are doing 65mph, at least half of the other drivers will be passing you doing about 80. As for the trucks, they drive like an accident looking for a place to happen. And I cannot remember the last time I saw one pulled over by a trooper.
There’s a hole in downtown Bridgeport, the State Police are looking into it.
Drivers are always accumulating points from troopers. Why not have troopers accumulate points from drivers?
Each time a speeding ticket is written a trooper gets a point. If it is for an 18-wheeler going over 75, five points. Over 85, 10 points. See where this is going?
Any driver in a black BMW who gets off at a Westport exit sweeping across all three lines of traffic onto the ramp going at least 75 mph is worth 10 points.
First trooper to get 100 points gets a brand new 2012 Dodge Charger police cruiser with all the bells and whistles from the state.
Now that’s incentive!
*** YOU DON’T NEED PIZZA OR A CONTEST TO DO A GOOD JOB, NO? ***