Quote:
Originally Posted by Leonidas  No flaming I think.
The difference is this: the hypothetical exchanges of services by the doctors, lawyers and contractors you present are transactions between private citizens and so those cases aren't corruption. A cop, or any other public employee, holds an office with certain prescribed duties to fulfill. Without the office they no longer have the powers and duties of the office. Cops, public school teachers, and fish and game guys don't personally 'own' the powers of their office or the services they provide, those are a function of the position they've been entrusted with.
A game warden can't ethically let his buddy poach trout out of a catch and release stream; a teacher can't fail to report a kid in his class who might have been beat on because the kids' parents are his neighbors, etc. |
Ok I understand your point. Most often than not, "professional courtesy" deals with traffic infractions. But, when dealing with infractions (which most minor traffic violations are) the penal code never states "
Shall make an arrest" (basically issue a ticket) it does state
"May make an arrest." Police officers have the right to either issue a verbal or written warning or write a ticket as they see fit. There are no such things as ticket quotas and if I'm not mistaken they are illegal. The cities do not receive much, if any, from the tickets that we issue. The fine amounts are set by the courts not the city. If you go by a strictly "per ticket basis" I have let more citizens go with warnings than off duty police officers.
Will I ever write another police officer a traffic ticket, probably not. Are there departments that do, yes there are. So is it unethical that I choose not to write a an off duty police officer a ticket, IMHO no.
Regarding the toll roads, I know that they sent a bill to our station when a couple of our on-duty police units used the toll road in an emergency situation. Also they sent the LA County or City Fire Dept. a bill when their trucks used the toll roads during the Santiago fires. So I dont know why they wouldn't send a bill to the individuals dept. that the confidential plates comes back to.
Hopefully this is making sense after a 14 hour shift at work.......