Nothing to See Here

In "Traffic Citations Statewide Jump Since Beginning of Recession," the Whittier Daily News reports on an interesting development in the area of law enforcement.
The California Highway Patrol and local police officers issued 110,000 more traffic citations in Los Angeles County last year then they did at the start of the economic recession, and a Sacramento attorney is questioning the timing.
In fiscal year 2006-2007, officers wrote 1,746,852 tickets countywide, according to data from Los Angeles County Superior Court. Last fiscal year, they wrote 1,857,825.
Statewide, the CHP issued about 200,000 more tickets in 2009 than in 2007, CHP officials said.
The CHP attributes the increase to more officers on the highways and new cell phone laws.
But Matthew Becker, an attorney who specializes in traffic cases, said cash- strapped state and local lawmakers are looking for ways to generate revenue.
"The policymakers are sticking more officers on the street knowing the officers will generate more tickets and more profit," he said. "It's not so much a safety issue, but hey, it's bringing in the bucks."
In fact, if you look at the data for California as a whole, the police seem to have been far more diligent in their efforts to keep the roads safe than they were before the financial crisis struck.

Of course, the recent change in circumstances may just be an anomaly, or perhaps authorities have simply realized that it's important to maintain law and order amid deteriorating economic conditions.
Yeah, right.