A police department is handing out coupons, not tickets, to people who follow the law.

[left-of-center2012]

For most people, the sight of flashing police lights in the rearview mirror tends to provoke anxiety. So when police in Tempe, Ariz., announced this week that officers would be handing out coupons for a free drink at Circle K gas stations as a reward for following traffic laws, labeling it a “Positive Ticketing Campaign,” the response was instantaneous backlash. Critics pointed out that stopping drivers who aren’t breaking any laws is typically unconstitutional, and that being pulled over is extremely stressful, or, at the very least, annoying and not worth the dollar or two saved on a fountain soda.

In Tempe, which is home to just shy of 200,000 people, tensions have been running high since January, when a 14-year-old boy who was carrying a replica Airsoft handgun ran away from police and was shot dead within seconds. Earlier this month, six Tempe police officers said that they were asked to leave a local Starbucks after another customer complained to a barista, saying the officers’ presence made them feel unsafe. (The chain later publicly apologized.)

But legal experts had some other thoughts on the matter. “I applaud the sentiment, but this is absolutely unlawful,” tweeted Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. “A traffic stop is a seizure, and must be supported by probable cause of a traffic infraction or reasonable suspicion of a crime. A traffic stop that lacks one of those legal justifications violates the Fourth Amendment.”

Scott Hechinger, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services, wondered, “What happens if they claim they notice the ‘odor of marijuana?’ Or see something ‘in plain view?' Will they still give them this stupid coupon before illegally searching & arresting them?” The ACLU, too, weighed in: “Whoever approved this needs a remedial course in constitutional law.” Others pointed out that being stopped by police can be especially frightening if you’re a person of color, and that getting a free soda, coffee or frozen drink wasn’t worth the stress and inconvenience of being pulled over.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/30/tempe-arizona-police-coupon-tickets-backlash/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0742aa744de3

[no_hypocrisy]

1. B.F. Skinner's theory of positive reinforcement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning

[Lochloosa]

3. So that is how Skinner has kept me here this long!

[customerserviceguy]

9. Funny! n/t

[Hortensis]

11. :) The positive is going to have to overcome the nasty shock

of seeing the flashing lights in the first place.

I've lived such a quiet life for so long that the last time I was stopped I was so rattled that for a few seconds I couldn't remember where I kept the registration. (I hadn't fastened my seat belt because I was moving about 3 buildings down the road to another store.)

Silly, but now I'm imagining the shock of thinking I was going to get a nice smile and coupon and instead being called "ma'am" and told to keep my hands on the steering wheel.

From what I recall, confusion from inconsistent feedback could cause us to bite children and chew the fur off our flanks...

[awesomerwb1]

2. What a ridiculous thing to do

I hope nobody dies for a friggin' coupon as a result of this idiotic idea.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. God, I hate this shit. FTP.

[StarfishSaver]

5. No thank you

Link to tweet

[NurseJackie]

7. Agreed! It's stupid.

It reminds me of the time one of my old employers gave an annual cash bonus to the employee who was never late for their shift. Ugh!

It wasn't a performance bonus. It was a bonus prize for doing the BARE MINIMUM (ie: just showing up on time) ... without any consideration of those who were much more productive and who contributed more value to the organization's bottom line.

No. I do not want to be pulled over to be thanked for following traffic laws.

Hey, I missed my flight because you pulled me over... but I get a free slushee at Circle-K? Whoopee! Totally worth it!

[StarfishSaver]

8. And if I'm a black man, thank you for shortening my life thanks to the abject stress

you subjected me to.

If police want to thank people for obeying the law, they can start by not looking the other way and joining the blue line of desense when their fellow cops shoot black people who were obeying the law.

[asiliveandbreathe]

6. Well, what more can be said, that hasn't already been said..I saw the headline here

and pondered a story I read long ago, where a guy aced the tests for the police academy in a NE state, and was refused the job because he was overqualified..too smart they told him...

I would love to have been a fly on the wall when TPD met to come up with suggestions on how to form a more perfect union between cops, this is what they decided on? - Brilliant, just brilliant I tell ya'...

BTW - Starbucks sent some of their top PR people in after the cops were told to leave ..sort of a smooth out the feathers kinda meet up...next time I attend the Tempe Arts Festival I will have to tell them, good job brownie..

[Aristus]

10. Copthink: If we give them free soda, maybe they will no longer notice that we're murdering

unarmed children.


Pigs...