4 ms·

Now I'm just an uneducated bumpkin, but it seems like you've tried to answer two questions here but mistakenly labeled them as one (until you back off in the la

Now I'm just an uneducated bumpkin, but it seems like you've tried to answer two questions here but mistakenly labeled them as one (until you back off in the last paragraph of "Analysis"): 1. Do police give more tickets at the end of the month? 2. If they do, is it because of quotas? The first is a statistical question, the second is much more complex. I can think of a few very good reasons why numbers would spike at the beginning of the month, plummet in the fat middle then spike at the end. None of them really have much to do with statistics directly. I think this would be compelling if you'd compare stats for years in which "quotas" (whatever they decide to call them) were policy against the stats from years which they weren't.

rpicard 14y ago
I think you're right in that the question of the title is really two questions. I tried to make that distinction clear in the analysis and conclusion sections. I didn't actually try to find information on quota policies (specifically for Baltimore and Maryland) until I was writing the analysis section. I was expecting to be able to find a detailed description of policies by state (or something helpful) on Wikipedia, but that didn't really pan out [1]. I wasn't able to find any reliable information elsewhere either. I think the taboo attached to the subject may keep information about policies pretty far under-wraps. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_quota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_quota
- Retric 14y ago
  I noticed you discarded speed camera tickets, it might be interesting to instead use them as the baseline and see the relative differences.
  - rpicard 14y ago
    That's an interesting idea, but I don't think that there were enough speed cam records to do that. If you notice the graphs before and after I discarded them, they are pretty much identical.
astral303 14y ago
For example, in Massachusetts, it's illegal to have ticket quotas. Of course, all that does is prevent them from admitting so publicly. Anecdotal, but a friend of a friend claimed that he goes out some nights and has to write a certain amount of tickets. Not so anecdotal, a collection of news stories related to Mass ticket quotas: http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x93766893 http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x93766893 http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/04/453.asp http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/04/453.asp http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/22/police_warned_to_ticket_drivers/ http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/22/police_... http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/21/2130.asp http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/21/2130.asp http://www.motorists.org/ma/radar.html http://www.motorists.org/ma/radar.html Also, when you see enforcements such as "Click It or Ticket," basically the govt provides incentive funds if certain seatbelt tickets quotas are met.
wpietri 14y ago
Circa 1992 I read a book titled something like "How to Speed and Get Away With It". It was written by a retired state trooper. One of the many things he mentioned was that the middle of the month is the best time to speed because troopers tended to fill their quotas early and late. The most useful piece of advice, though, was on how to pull over. Turns out that every time a cop pulls somebody over, he's worried about getting smooshed by traffic or shot by a loon. His advice, which I've followed faithfully, is to pull waaaay over, so the cop can park close to traffic and create a bubble of protected space. Then you turn on the interior lights, roll down the windows, turn off the car, throw the keys on the dash, and hold the steering wheel at the top with both hands. Authority figures like respect, and this display of considerate compliance has worked wonders for me.
- Evbn 14y ago
  Scrum programming burndown charts corroborate this S-curve effect.

rpicard 14y ago

I think you're right in that the question of the title is really two questions. I tried to make that distinction clear in the analysis and conclusion sections. I didn't actually try to find information on quota policies (specifically for Baltimore and Maryland) until I was writing the analysis section. I was expecting to be able to find a detailed description of policies by state (or something helpful) on Wikipedia, but that didn't really pan out [1]. I wasn't able to find any reliable information elsewhere either. I think the taboo attached to the subject may keep information about policies pretty far under-wraps. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_quota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_quota

Retric 14y ago
I noticed you discarded speed camera tickets, it might be interesting to instead use them as the baseline and see the relative differences.
- rpicard 14y ago
  That's an interesting idea, but I don't think that there were enough speed cam records to do that. If you notice the graphs before and after I discarded them, they are pretty much identical.

astral303 14y ago

For example, in Massachusetts, it's illegal to have ticket quotas. Of course, all that does is prevent them from admitting so publicly. Anecdotal, but a friend of a friend claimed that he goes out some nights and has to write a certain amount of tickets. Not so anecdotal, a collection of news stories related to Mass ticket quotas: http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x93766893 http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x93766893 http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/04/453.asp http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/04/453.asp http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/22/police_warned_to_ticket_drivers/ http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/22/police_... http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/21/2130.asp http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/21/2130.asp http://www.motorists.org/ma/radar.html http://www.motorists.org/ma/radar.html Also, when you see enforcements such as "Click It or Ticket," basically the govt provides incentive funds if certain seatbelt tickets quotas are met.

wpietri 14y ago

Circa 1992 I read a book titled something like "How to Speed and Get Away With It". It was written by a retired state trooper. One of the many things he mentioned was that the middle of the month is the best time to speed because troopers tended to fill their quotas early and late. The most useful piece of advice, though, was on how to pull over. Turns out that every time a cop pulls somebody over, he's worried about getting smooshed by traffic or shot by a loon. His advice, which I've followed faithfully, is to pull waaaay over, so the cop can park close to traffic and create a bubble of protected space. Then you turn on the interior lights, roll down the windows, turn off the car, throw the keys on the dash, and hold the steering wheel at the top with both hands. Authority figures like respect, and this display of considerate compliance has worked wonders for me.

Evbn 14y ago
Scrum programming burndown charts corroborate this S-curve effect.