We won't pay!

There seems to be a small revolt forming in Rockville MD these days. In at least eight months of 2007, motorists haven't been paying the $40 speeding tickets that are due from being caught on camera speeding.

The motorists who haven't bothered to pay their tickets are police officers who were clocked going more than 10 mph over the speed limit. Supervisors have dismissed 76 of the 224 tickets issued to officers after it was determined that those officers were responding to calls or had valid reasons for speeding.

With a bit of simple math though, that leaves 148 who didn't have an excuse and two thirds of those haven't been paid yet. The police union claims that the owner of the vehicles should be paying the ticket and that would be the county. I wonder why they think that the officers should be allowed to use that excuse when I am sure that owners of civilian vehicles probably have already unsuccessfully tried that path in court to escape a ticket they didn't incur.

Police Chief Thomas Manger has stated that he doesn't buy that argument and that officers aren't above the law. It's nice to hear someone take that stand but Manger added, those officers who continue to not pay "might" be disciplined. They might be disciplined? I would expect that they should face the same penelties that any other driver faces for not paying their fines because they aren't above the law.... they should be an example of following the law if they think they are going to arrest civilians for the same crimes.