Warning!
When it comes to traffic tickets, it matters where you get stopped
Despite the dread many drivers feel when they see those blue lights flashing unmistakably in their rear-view mirror, the punishment that errant motorists are most likely to receive in local communities is the same one they used to get from mom or dad when they were kids - a good talking-to.
Based on records provided by 21 local police departments, over half of them were more likely to issue a written warning for minor traffic infractions than a citation calling for a fine or court appearance. The police agencies had responded to a request, which was filed with all of the departments across the region, for information regarding tickets issued during 2007.
In some cases, drivers were overwhelmingly more likely to get a warning than a fine. The Southborough Police Department, for example, handed out 1,613 written warnings for infractions ranging from failure to heed a stop sign to speeding. Only 598 drivers were fined, however, meaning that officers issued written warnings in 73 percent of documented traffic stops.
In both Dover and Wellesley, police issued written warnings more than 65 percent of the time. In Newton, drivers were warned instead of fined almost 72 percent of the time.
On the other end of the spectrum were Medway, where police had motorists digging into their wallets 88 percent of the time, and Natick, where police issued fines rather than written warnings in more than 60 percent of all but the most serious documented traffic stops.
The percentage of warnings rises even more dramatically when verbal warnings - cases where an officer stops a driver but makes no official written record of it - are taken into account.
Many of the departments that responded to the Globe's request for information said they do not keep track of verbal warnings, and one, Framingham, said it had a policy against officers issuing purely verbal warnings. But among the departments that do keep track of verbal warnings, the influence on the statistics was dramatic.
In Lincoln, for example, police issued written warnings instead of fines 59 percent of the time in 2007, but when the 495 less-formal verbal warnings issued were taken into account, the frequency of warnings overall rose to more than 68 percent. In Needham, verbal warnings pushed the incidence of warnings issued from 72 percent to nearly 82 percent.
So why all the warnings? Simply put, police say, they work.
"People tend to remember a warning in a positive way - it's a positive interaction and positive reinforcement," Bolton Police Chief Vincent Alfano said. "A fine people usually remember in a negative way."
In other words, people who feel like they've been treated with compassion and understanding by their local police are more likely to try to be a better citizen on the roadways in the future, he said. People who have been fined, meanwhile, can sometimes feel picked on and actually become less motivated to follow the rules when they're on the road, he said.
In Newton, the patrol officers union actually went to court several years ago and fought an order by then-Police Chief Jose M. Cordero that officers stop handing out written warnings and issue only fines instead. In 2005, the state Court of Appeals sided with lawyers for the union, who had argued that state law both gave police officers the discretion to issue warnings and prohibited cities and towns from using traffic citations as a means to generate revenue.
Court decisions and a reluctance to interfere with law-enforcement policies have largely prevented local officials from calling on their police departments to issue more fines, even though municipal budgets are getting increasingly tight and many communities are facing the choice between cutting back services or asking voters for Proposition 2 1/2 overrides to raise taxes.
In Southborough, officials acknowledge that the 1,613 warnings issued by the police represented the loss of tens of thousands of dollars in potential revenue. The money would come in handy this year, Town Administrator Jean Kitchen said.
"Budgets are really, really tight," she said. "We have had to look at various ways to cut costs or raise revenues."
Yet while town officials are discussing options such as personnel cuts and tax increases, one measure that no one seems to be talking about is to have police levy more fines against errant motorists, Kitchen said. "We allow the Police Department to make those sorts of determinations," she said.
While theories abound about the best way to avoid getting a traffic fine - crocodile tears, playing dumb, obsequious politeness, deference to the officer, among others - police officials say that the reasons why officers issue warnings instead of fines and vice versa are actually fairly straightforward.
Lieutenant Bruce Apothaker, a spokesman for the Newton police, said patrolmen are trained in using their discretion while making traffic stops, and are also instructed by the department's operations manual, which suggests that warnings be issued for violations that are "minor in nature, unique, or are infractions of which the driver is not aware."
In Bolton, Alfano said, while there are no specific guidelines for officers on when to give a warning and when to levy a fine, is generally understood that a warning is probably acceptable in most cases. But in situations that involve serious threats to public safety - such as excessive speeding or suspected drunken driving - there is basically no leeway for officers to issue a warning, Alfano said.
(For that reason, the statistics analyzed by the Globe do not include incidents in which motorists were arrested, since there is virtually no practical discretion in such situations, police said.)
"A lot of it has to do with the seriousness of the violation," Alfano said. "If someone is going 5 or 10 miles per hour over the limit in a remote area, that does not carry the same gravity as someone going 75 through a school zone."
Another major consideration, Alfano said, involves a nearly pure judgment call by the officer - whether the person will correct his or her behavior if they are only issued a warning. Often, a quick computer check of the offender's driving record will do the trick, he said.
"Honestly, if someone's been stopped 20 times, how effective is a warning going to be?" he said.
Excessive belligerence, Alfano said, can also be a fairly good indicator to an officer about whether a driver is likely to reform their errant driving without the added motivation of a fine. That doesn't necessarily mean that slavish politeness will guarantee a warning, however.
"The police business is all about dealing with people," Alfano said. "The one thing you get to pick up over the years is being a good reader of people - you just get a sense of when someone is snowing you and when someone is sincere.
"I've stopped plenty of people who have been polite and professional, but who still received a fine because of what they did." 