WASHINGTON:No mercy for speeders as troopers issue more ticketsClark County duo honored by Traffic Safety Commission Files

OFF THE WIRE
HONORED FOR WRITING TICKETS,W.T.F

http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/sep/27/no-mercy-for-speeders-troopers-issue-more-tickets/ No mercy for speeders as troopers issue more ticketsClark County duo honored by Traffic Safety Commission Files/The Columbian

By John Branton Columbian Staff Reporter

Originally published September 27, 2010 at 6 a.m., updated September 27, 2010 at 11:02 p.m.
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Mike Johnson averaged 34 stops per shift.
WSP

Marcus Hoggatt ticketed 92.3% of drivers he stopped. Map Map data ©2010 Google - Terms of UseMapHybridsee more mapped stories If you have a lead foot, you might want to ease up on the gas pedal on Interstate 5 and other highways in Clark County, because there’s a strict mood in the air, for some state troopers at least.

Don’t believe it?

Ask the 5,835 speeders that two recently-honored Washington State Patrol troopers, Marcus Hoggatt and Mike Johnson, used their motorcycles to pull over in Clark County last year.

Johnson stopped an average of 34 violators per shift, the highest average of any motorcycle trooper in the state.

And he and Hoggatt aren’t known for saying things like, “Well, I won’t write you up this time. Just take it easy, OK?”

Johnson issued tickets in 95 percent of his stops last year, and cut only 5 percent loose with a warning.

Hoggatt wrote citations to 92.3 percent of his drivers and let less than 8 percent off the hook, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission said Thursday.

Strict ticket versus warning rates like those are higher than average, said Dan Coon, a WSP spokesman in Olympia, who estimated that the average ticket rate these days is in the high 50s to low 60s.

“It’s a pretty high ratio,” Trooper Steve Schatzel, a WSP spokesman who also specializes in tracking down license cheaters, said of Hoggatt’s and Johnson’s ticketing. Schatzel said his personal ticket versus warning rate when he was assigned to road patrol several years ago was about 60 percent ticketed.

Also, Schatzel and Coon said, motorcycle-riding troopers like Hoggatt and Johnson tend to stop more speeders than troopers in patrol cars.

“Their main focus is speeders,” Schatzel said.

If a motorcycle trooper stops a driver who is intoxicated, Coon said, the trooper likely will call for a trooper in a car to take over the arrest. The car trooper then can put the driver in the back seat of the patrol cruiser for a trip to the nearest alcohol-breath tester or jail.

Once the car trooper arrives, the motorcycle trooper gets back to watching for speeders.

Also, heavy traffic on I-5 in Clark County offers troopers a steady flow of speeders to target.

“I don’t want to say it’s like shooting fish in a barrel,” Coon said, “but we all know how it is on I-5 in that area.”

As in years past, all troopers have discretion as to issuing tickets or warnings, based on the situation, officials said.

“The Patrol doesn’t have any quotas on how many tickets a trooper writes,” Schatzel said.

“Somebody who’s 15 mph over the speed limit, chances are they are not going to get a warning,” Schatzel said.

He said the same goes for aggressive drivers who tailgate others and make erratic lane changes to get ahead, or those who drive even more dangerously.

Target: Zero fatalities To keep driving the traffic fatality numbers down, toward the Target Zero goal of none in Washington by 2030, WSP Chief John R. Batiste asked troopers to take speeding more seriously in 2006. A year later, motorists were getting tickets in about 60 to 65 percent of stops, up from about 44 percent previously, according to Columbian files.

Troopers’ thinking changed after Batiste’s order. Were they really being nice guys when they issued only a warning? Or were they encouraging more speeding and more crashes?

Last week, Hoggatt and Johnson were honored as outstanding troopers by the Traffic Safety Commission, during a statewide awards ceremony in Lacey.

And though officials say the WSP has no quotas, the commission focused on the number of traffic stops the two troopers made, and how many tickets they wrote, as among the reasons for the awards.

Hoggatt pulled over 2,730 speeders in Clark County last year, officials said in a bulletin, and 2,520 of those drivers received tickets. Last November and December he focused on impaired drivers and arrested 34.

As for Johnson, he stopped 3,105 speeders and issued 2,950 citations.

“Trooper Johnson often speaks to community groups and teens to emphasize the importance of driver and motorcycle safety,” Mark Medalen, speaking for the Traffic Safety Commission, said in the bulletin.

They were among 13 troopers honored statewide, said Lynn Drake, a program manager with the commission. The commission also recognized 25 people or groups for helping make roads safer, ranging from the King County Department of Transportation to a Renton police cadet to Shelton High School’s Students Against Destructive Decisions group, Drake said.

It’s well known that the number of traffic fatalities has been falling year to year, and public safety officials say it’s due to several factors including traffic-law enforcement, safety education, safer roads and cars, and better emergency medical services for injured motorists when crashes do occur.