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Disappointed

Status: Closed
Assigned To: jallen (Police)
Ticket ID: 33614676

Today I saw the other side of the law. I saw the side that makes police out to be bad guys to someone who would prove to be less rationale than myself. Today I was given a ticket for having my phone in my hand while using a hands free device. I explained this to the officer and ultimately received a ticket. As a mother of four who has gone back to school to further my nursing career, I have had to cut back tremendously on hours. Ironically my husband is discharging from the USAF this week to hopefully be hired on with the Texas State Police, so money is a commodity at this point. I have been to the police department and I have been the the court and the only solution is open court. Open court seems doable except this means that I miss my day I have agreed to work to cover some of our expenses to explain to a judge I was following the law and in a lapse of judgment had my phone physically in my hand, ultimately losing the same amount of money I would pay for a ticket. My question is why? Why is this even happening as someone in a service type of work. There is no way I could see someone legitimately doing what is right and fault them for an obvious oversight. I would like to say, however your officer was very courteous and I hope he received the same respect from me as was verbally given. Officers have a crap job and I admire them for their work, but I do have to admit it is situations like this that can easily skew a persons high opinion.

Ticket History

Public
Closed
Updated By: jallen
Assigned To: jallen (Police)

Dear Lauren, first of all thank you to your husband for his military service and I hope he is successful in landing a position with the Texas State Police! I would assert that being a peace officer is one of the highest honors bestowed upon a person - to hold that degree of public trust brings with it tremendous responsibility, and I can assure you that it is anything but a "crap job." Just like the nursing profession, we deal with crappy circumstances sometimes, which is what I suspect you meant, since you also stated that you admire police officers - probably for the risks we face every day and the difficult decisions we are expected to make, even when it means taking criticism from our most upright of citizens.

You mention that your circumstance would make a less rational person than yourself see the police as the "bad guys." We can't even hope that the irrational among us would think this through like you have, so I am happy to hear that you are not of the opinion that police are the bad guys simply because you were given a ticket for violating the law (holding a electronic device in your hand while driving), even though you were trying to obey the law by using a "hands-free" system. As you stated, is was a lapse of your good judgment that became the issue. That the unfortunate lapse occurred within sight of a police officer, is, well, also unfortunate.

Something to remember is that the police do not determine if someone is guilty or not; we only determine if there is a probability that a law has been broken. The rest is up to the court. Talking to the prosecutor's office (406-455-8535) may give you more information as to possible outcomes of this citation. I'm sorry to hear that money is tight and the court schedule is inconvenient, but it's the best we have.

Finally, I am glad to hear that our officer was courteous and I am certain that he appreciated your respectful attitude towards him, as well. Best wishes to you and your family.

07/13/2017 - 5:34pm
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Citizen request/question created.

07/12/2017 - 4:09pm

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