Interesting Facts and Statistics about Speeding Tickets, Police Behavior and Other Infractions
According to a case study of Speeding Tickets of 100mph or more in Oregon issued during 2006 and 2007, the following findings were discovered. Considering that Oregon and California are neighbors on the West Coast, there is an assumption that many of the statistics and behaviors are similar. While demographics may differ slightly from state to state, these are still interesting facts to keep in mind:
- 79% of the cited drivers were male.
- 81% of the citations were issued to drivers on freeways, and 19% were issued on secondary state highways.
- The highest percentage age group for male drivers was 20-24 (34%) followed by age group 15-19 (21%).
- For all violators cited, 51% involved drivers ages 15-24.
- In 2005, state troopers cited 464 people for driving 100 mph or faster This is down significantly from previous years between 2000 and 2004, when troopers cited more the 2,600 drivers.
A 2004 study analyzing citizen self-reports of traffic tickets and information about their traffic stop encounters with police from a nationally representative sample, found the following:
Routine traffic stops are the single most frequent type of police-citizen encounter (Langan et al., 2001; Lundman, 1979; Gardiner, 1968; Skolnick, 1966; Ross, 1960). Routine traffic stops are, therefore, the only regular contact most citizens have with police and these encounters are an important source of citizen perceptions of their police (Bayley, 1976:xx; also see Dedman and Latour, 2003:A1). On the national level, for instance, Langan and colleagues (2001) estimate that 19.3 million drivers were stopped by police in 1999 (or about 1 of 10 licensed drivers) and most of these drivers (90%) exit these encounters perceiving the police acted properly (Langan et al., 2001; also see Lundman and Kaufman, 2003).
However, not all traffic stops end in traffic tickets. According to Denver police (Thomas, 2002:30), 65% of the traffic stops they made in the twelve months ending in May of 2002 resulted in a traffic ticket. Similarly, San Diego police reported that 66% of the traffic stops they made in 2000 ended in a traffic ticket (Bejarano, 2001:5).
Because not all traffic stops end in traffic tickets, an obvious general question emerges: what factors explain traffic tickets by police? More specific questions emerge as well, with some of the most intriguing and important grounded in the gender of the stopped driver, the race and ethnicity of the officer making the stop, and the race and ethnicity of the driver. Stay tuned for results of these studies.
Note: While controlling for other important explanatory measures such as the legal reason for the traffic stop (e.g., speeding, other moving violation, or defective equipment) and other extralegal driver characteristics including social class and age, the nationwide sample isolated the effects of driver gender, officer race and ethnicity, driver race and ethnicity, and intersections of officer race and ethnicity with driver race and ethnicity.
If you have found yourself in the unfortunate 35% of stops that end up with a speeding ticket being written, we can help. Please explore this site, Fightspeedingticketsonline.com, a service provided by Ticket Busters of California (TicketBust.com) or call our team of experts at 800.850.8038.
