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Buckle Up Before Cruising

That’s all well and good, but...

Milwaukee area law enforcement officials issued 691 safety belt citations and 31 child passenger restraint citations during the Click It or Ticket mobilization, May 21 to June 3, according to preliminary figures from the Wisconsin State Patrol Bureau of Transportation Safety.

Statewide, Wisconsin law enforcement officers issued 8,116 safety belt citations and 246 child passenger restraint citations.

Approximately 350 law enforcement agencies participated in the mobilization, making it the largest law enforcement mobilization ever in Wisconsin. The effort was part of the nationwide seatbelt enforcement campaign.

[...]

“We estimate that every one percent increase in safety belt use in Wisconsin saves about six lives each year,” State Patrol Maj. Dan Lonsdorf, director of the Bureau of Transportation Safety, said.

Where is that kind of energy for non-revenue-generating law enforcement in like… oh, I don’t know… fighting crime in MILWAUKEE?  Imagine if the “largest law enforcement mobilization ever in Wisconsin” were focused in the problem areas of Milwaukee.  I bet it would save more than 6 lives.

Posted by Owen at 2156 hrs
Law + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

1. The 350 law enforcement agencies were conducting this campaign while patrolling their own turfs— suburbs, surrounding counties, freeways—where taxpayers probably would prefer that their own police, sheriffs, etc., stay on the job there. 

   Otherwise, they would have to raise taxes there to cover those turfs while sending their police, sheriffs, etc., into the inner city.  Or they could send those taxes into the city to create more police there—but that would be done by increasing the state budget, wouldn’t it?

   Never mind.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 20, 2007 at 2246 hrs
   
   
   

2. There are at least 5 police agencies that operate in Milwaukee-MPD, County Sheriff, State Patrol, UWM police and State Capitol police(who patrol state buildings) in addition to federal police and state AG’s police.  Why can’t they coordinate massive sweeps in the inner city and the south side?

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 0004 hrs
   
   
   

3. Great, let’s have not enough cops everywhere else in the city, too.  Shortstaff the parks, freeways, UWM, state and federal buildings, etc.  Let’s empty ‘em all out of their cops and let drivers deal with freeway accidents and students deal with campus crimes and clerks deal with criminals loose in the courthouse.  Do you think the cops aren’t busy enough at the courthouse, the federal building, the state buildings, the parks, the campuses that together add up to more people than the entire population of most towns for several counties around?

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 0245 hrs
   
   
   

4. Kay, how many people are getting gunned down for trivial reasons in the areas you are so eager to defend? I live in the inner city of Milwaukee, and as long as the government is infringing my right to protect myself, it should be doing something to protect me.

   Posted by triticale on June 21, 2007 at 0743 hrs
   
   
   

5. What’s the fine for no seatbelt.  Did this this go towards reducing the 1.7B tax increase?  Or is this considered a regressive tax?

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 0747 hrs
   
   
   

6. The whole “operation” was a teat-sucking move.

   The Feds doled out extra money to the States for this asinine adventure.

   Had nothing whatsoever to do with actual problems—

   Just another example of the lunacy of allowing Georgetown/Arlington Elites to manage everything.

   Posted by dad29 on June 21, 2007 at 0803 hrs
   
   
   

7. Dan- 
   Unfortunately, UWM police can only operate in the area of the campus, the Capitol Police can only operate on state property, and the state patrol does not operate in Milwaukee County since the Sheriff’s Department handles the freeways.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 0813 hrs
   
   
   

8. Triticale, read John’s reply, repeating mine about duty areas of the other police forces in the city—and tell us why you are so NOT eager to defend the freeways, parks, campus, and more.  (As to why Owen thinks it’s a good idea, I say send us West Bend’s finest first, reducing the police presence there. . . .)

   And read the paper about more than your neighborhood.  Yes, people have been gunned down in parks and at UWM (or close to it, after being chased from it).  Did you miss the VTech story a couple of months ago, too, and think it’s fine to take the cops away from thousands of people at UWM, some of them not just there for class or work but living there, too?

   Containment calls for police forces to cover their own duty areas and keep problem areas from growing larger, while MPD concentrates more police in your neighborhood than elsewhere, already done.  And read the paper today about plans for remapping districts to concentrate MPD even more where you are, already underway.  Now you want problem areas to grow larger than they are already?

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 0940 hrs
   
   
   

9. How many motorcyclists did they cite for not wearing helmets during this campaign?

   Oh yeah…

   Posted by Matt on June 21, 2007 at 1008 hrs
   
   
   

10. Great point Matt…

    Its amazing how much tax money WE send to the government so THEY can turn around and fine us and issue citations etc.

    NOT only that but I LOVE it when I see television commercials that cost MILLIONS to produce, direct, shoot, and air on television to “click it or ticket” knowing that I got to pay the government to run commercials telling me that they are going to use my tax dollars to write me tickets to ‘protect me from myself’

    I love it when I’m driving down I-94 to Madison and I see 2 Jefferson County Sherriffs Deputies on their Harleys running speed traps on the eastbound and westbound lanes, and then a mile up the road there is a car in the emergency lane broken down with no assistance there.

    I loved finding out there there is a grant issued from the state so that Jefferson Country Sherrifs deputies can sit and run speed traps on 94.  All these budget problems and the state has tax dollars to devote to special grants to arbitrarily take more of our money from us.

    Yes folks, this is your tax dollars at work.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 1047 hrs
    
    
    

11. Isn’t the “broken windows policing” you will all be praising Rudy for in the next few months if Mr. 9/11 get the GOP nod?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 1125 hrs
    
    
    

12. Isn’t the “broken windows policing” you will all be praising Rudy for in the next few months if Mr. 9/11 get the GOP nod?

    ah… I love being a libertarian… 

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 1130 hrs
    
    
    

13. Speeding on the highway and not wearing seatbelts leads to inner city violence? Who knew?!

    Posted by Matt on June 21, 2007 at 1342 hrs
    
    
    

14. Unfortunately, UWM police can only operate in the area of the campus, the Capitol Police can only operate on state property, and the state patrol does not operate in Milwaukee County since the Sheriff’s Department handles the freeways.

    Actually you are wrong about the State Patrol, not operating in Milwaukee County. There is ALWAYS a State trooper parked either on the Good Hope on ramp to 45 Southbound or At the 145 on ramp to 45 Southbound. (And he usually pulls 1-2 people over during the morning rush hour too!)

    Posted by Michael J. Cheaney on June 21, 2007 at 1816 hrs
    
    
    

15. Capitol Police can only operate on state property

    Not true.  They go wherever they are directed by the Governor.

    They operate in two modes.  Around the Capitol they are like your typical police force.  However, they also operate like the FBI in other areas.  No “traffic cop” or “municipal violations,” but they can nail your ass for State law violations—if they choose to do so.

    Posted by dad29 on June 21, 2007 at 2005 hrs
    
    
    

16. Well, to get down to fine points, UWM police are state police (those that are police, vs. student help, parking checkers, etc.).  That’s what gives them much more power (and guns) compared to campus security (not police per se) at Marquette and other private campuses.

    And yes, UWM police are assigned only to state property.  That’s plenty, almost 100 acres with more than 30,000 people—more than a lot of towns around.  UWM police can operate off campus but within a specific area close to campus worked out with MPD (since UWM is on the city border, less efficient for MPD to patrol) and sometimes by invitation from Shorewood police and others.  (Info from JS online and UWM site.)

    All just goes to show that all have worked out careful coordination of responsibilities, and that can’t be easy, so it ought to be understood and respected—rather than suggest that they run all over the place, overlapping each other.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 21, 2007 at 2235 hrs
    
    
    

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