The Pinch Quota

An encouraging word came out of Sacramento the other day.

Bradford
M. Crittenden, taking office as California Highway Patrol Commissioner,
told newsmen CHP officers will not have to make a minimum of arrests
each day. "Bad pinches," he said bluntly, "are bad law enforcement."

The
news story continued: "Charges have been made in the Legislature and
elsewhere that patrolmen are graded by the number of citations they
issue and that promotions are given to officers with high arrest
records."

Let us localize the picture and see what we get. We come immediately to that horrid word "quota."

ASK THE LAPD high command if there is a ticket quota and you get a horrified denial. Technically this is correct.

But
let us take the hypothetical case of an ambitious policemen who writes
a ticket for every violation he sees and perhaps one now and then that
he only half sees. As any motorist knows, this is like shooting fish in
a barrel. If a traffic officer goes by the book we’re all guilty of
some infraction every time we get behind the wheel.

Now let us
say the captain of the station to which this eager beaver is attached
is under pressure from downtown to step up enforcement because of
several bad accidents in his area. What is to prevent him from calling
in the other patrolmen and asking how come they wrote only three
tickets the day before when the fireball wrote 12? Having no
alternative, they pull a few suckers to the side and issue valentines.

AN INCREASING number
of motorists feel that justice would better be served by friendly
warnings instead of tickets for minor offenses. On serious offense, of
course — no mercy.

This would be possible if traffic officers
were given full discretion to handle each case as they see fit instead
of conforming to the philosophy that punishment is the only solution to
the traffic dilemma.

A LISTENER phoned KMPC yesterday and asked to speak to Dick Whittinghill. He had a suggestion, he said.

When
Dick came on the line the man went into a detailed explanation of his
idea but Dick cut in with, "I’m sorry, I can’t help you."

"Why?" the man asked.

"Because I’m not here today — my show’s on tape."

"Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll call back tomorrow."

THE FOLKS are fighting TV commercials again.

Christine
Walters is worried about the gal with the sniffles who gets out of bed
maybe a dozen times a day to take a cold remedy. The cold has hung on
so long that Christine thinks the gal should discard the thin nightgown
for flannel pajamas.

Ed Harding offers free to the Viceroy
people another variation on their series. The scene is an operating
room. In response to the key question the man with the scalpel tears
off his mask and rubber gloves and says, "I’m not a surgeon — I’m a
CPA."

EN AGUA CALIENTE
The trouble with betting and winning a peso-
I fear I’ll be getting carried a weso.
— CLIFF MACKAY

AT RANDOM —
No one seems to know why but racing drivers are superstitious about the
color green. An automotive engineer entered in the Mobil-gas Economy
Run to Kansas City received four new cars for the test but refused to
accept two. Yep, bright green . . . Saddest man in Los Angeles this
week is a trusting fellow who bought two Irish Sweepstakes tickets and
learned the other day the seller hadn’t turned in the money or the
coupons on account he has been in jail for drunkenness. He’ll always
think of what might have been . . . Overheard by Paul Fierro in a
Sunset Boulevard actors’ hangout: "If he ever got the right break he’d
be bigger than Lassie."