In addition to issuing tickets officers all over the country take the opportunity to seize what they in their sole judgment regard as suspicious amounts of cash without benefit of a trial or charges. Many such seizures are in the mere hundreds of dollars with the average seizure only $1200 and the legal cost to reclaim such is usually in the thousands so people are left without recourse. Even when the money is reclaimed there is no punishment for officers for essentially robbing the populace.

In the last 20 years they have taken about 70B from citizens mostly without actually charging the person they stole from and disproportionately from minorities.

Regarding the victims, many people especially contractors prefer to deal in cash and frequently carry a significant amount of cash on hand to purchase goods and pay help. Others transport large quantities of cash from their business or to make large purchases particularly used cars purchased from owners instead of dealerships.

I mean depending on the state or even the town that officer is going to take any cash they have on them and might shoot them if they don't comply...

We started by making fun of sovcits, now we make fun of anyone who criticizes police. What the fuck is happening on Lemmy.

I’m not driving, I’m traveling!!!

That was my exact first impression of this post.

Basically Sovcit nonsense

https://priceonomics.com/how-police-officers-seize-cash-from-innocent/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/the-supreme-court-rules-that-cops-can-steal-your-stuff-as-they-always-have/ar-BB1magie

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/08/18/civil-asset-forfeiture-explained/74802279007/

Those are just the top 3 search results for "cops steal money".

If we could count on unsafe drivers getting tickets, then maybe that would be acceptable, but that's not how it works. It's really hard to quantity "safety". It's really easy to quantity speed. It's difficult to quantify what speed is safe, so in most cases, we pick an arbitrary number, which damn near everyone ignores. At least where I live, 5 over is a minimum, 10-15 over is common. So cops can pretty much pull anyone over at a whim. And they do. But they don't make a dent in actual unsafe driving.

Doubt. The amount of cops who are either going to A give chase or B open fire regardless of the local laws is going to be far beyond statistically relevant. Maybe even a large plurality.

Never, never assume that a cop knows the law. Their job is to enforce, not to know. That's the DA's job.

In what universe is this paradise?

NYPD officer cites ‘courtesy cards,’ used by friends and family of cops, as source of corruption

Though not officially recognized by the NYPD, the laminated cards have long been treated as a perk of the job. The city’s police unions issue them to members, who circulate them among those who want to signal their NYPD connections — often to get out of minor infraction like speeding or failing to wear a seat belt.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan this week, Officer Mathew Bianchi described a practice of selective enforcement with consequences for officers who don’t follow the unwritten policy. Current and retired officers now have access to hundreds of cards, giving them away in exchange for a discount on a meal or a home improvement job, he said.

In the Staten Island precinct where he works, a predominantly white area with a high percentage of cops and other city workers, Bianchi said multitudes of people he pulled over for traffic infractions flashed him one of the cards.