Seat belt enforcement or revenue enhancement?
To the editor:
I realize that our fair city of Cape Coral is finding it difficult to tighten its financial belt, but our wonderful police department is coming through with their part. On Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009, they spent most of their day using questionable tactics in order to issue as many tickets as possible. I realize also, that it is now legal for the police to issue tickets to people who are not wearing seatbelts. I think most of us assumed that if a police officer observed someone not wearing a seatbelt, they would pull them over an issue a citation. Aug. 4, their method was just a slight bit different. They used a man in plain clothes, standing in a walkway at the corner of Southeast 15th Avenue/47th Terrace with a walkie talkie to tell them when he observed a person at the 4-way stop sign not wearing a seatbelt. I personally watched this for quite some time.
The police were using primarily unmarked cars to issue the tickets. The unmarked cars were making U-turns on Southeast 15th Avenue, both in the middle of the block and at the corner of 47th Street in order to return to position for the next citation. I know this isn’t considered hiding or entrapment, it is just done to avoid causing interference with traffic, just as they do when they happen to be behind a building or a plant in the median. I feel sure they would say that enforcing the seatbelt law could save lives, but how many innocent lives were endangered with the U- turns?
I know they said that the loss of revenue could cause us to lose some of the services we are now given from our tax dollars, but I don’t think most of us would consider this to be the best way to spend their time.
Mary West
Cape Coral