Thursday, April 20, 2006

Speeding tickets, police, and your attitude

Just handled a speeding ticket in a local court. Met with the trooper to discuss the case. He reviewed his notes. Aha, he said. There's your problem. He pointed to the word "Attitude".

I knew exactly what he meant. This client had been difficult with me as well, and I remember from speaking with him that it sounded like he'd been difficult with the court staff as well.

So this particular client did not get the same deal he would have gotten if he had been polite to the Trooper. I still got him a deal, and this deal was significant, but it would have been better still if only.

Remember, police are people too. Most of the police I encounter in my work are pleasant. They believe in what they're doing (no matter how many of them I see speeding with a cell phone at their ear). So be nice to them. Respectful. Because you should be nice. But if that doesn't work for you, then because you won't get as good of a deal if you're not nice.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So true...as a cop I can relate I attempted just recently to give a break on the street but alas the lady/girl had a real bad attitude and got two instead of one. Anyway good advice.

Anonymous said...

VERY GOOD ADVICE!

In my 'younger' days when I was crazy at the wheel, thinking I would never get caught, I ended up with two speeding tickets in the same evening. What makes this a story that will go down in my history book is that the tickets were written just THREE MINUTES APART and by two different officers. The first was a town police officer, the second a sheriff. I do believe it was because I had quite a 'tude' with the first one. Would you believe I even sped away when we were finished, with him still sitting behind me? (No brains, I know.) Hey, he made me late for work......well, that's what I thought then. Now I know it was only 'I' who made 'me' late for work. I no longer ride the blame train.

Anyway, I believe he radioed the sheriff's station that was only three miles away, and sure enough they were sitting and waiting for me as I went speeding by them too. His parting words to me were, "When are you going to learn?"

Thankfully I did learn before I hurt myself or anyone else. It cost me a lot of money to hire an attorney in order to keep my license, but it was worth it. It was what it took for me to slow down.

Police officer's are there for a reason- to protect and help people. Thanks for helping me that night!