Voided citations raising questions ; TPD nixed at least 2 questionable tickets; sheriff’s office doesn’t keep complete records
By Aly Van Dyke; Aly Van Dyke [email protected] | |
Proquest LLC |
Open records requests revealed the
"We're talking about having hundreds of tickets voided for various reasons, and there are just two examples here that may be in question," said Capt.
Conklin said he would need to review the copy of the tickets, which as of Friday were held up in a backlog at
"Until we find out the circumstances behind these, of course we have to believe that there was good reason," he said. "If we find out there was no good reason, that's where we take the opportunities to train the officers."
The Topeka Capital-Journal paid
Sheriff's office
At the
For voided tickets, the sheriff's office only records the date, the ticket number, the officer identification number and the reason it was voided -- not the name of the defendant or the violation.
Of the 55 traffic tickets voided between
Often times, tickets are voided because the person corrected the issue within 72 hours or because it was dropped in lieu of a plea agreement, said Sheriff
After The Capital-Journal inquired into voided tickets in January, he said, he "specifically addressed this matter with staff" to make his expectations clear.
"Deputies were instructed to be specific as to their reasons for voiding citations," Jones said in an email statement Sunday. "I want you to know we clearly work to be transparent and ethical in our acts."
The sheriff's office has a general order that prohibits officers from fixing tickets, said Sgt.
However, without recording whom the voided tickets were written to, he acknowledged, that order primarily is self-enforced and dependent upon the integrity of the officer.
"I believe our officers have integrity," Stallbaumer said. "This is not an issue at the sheriff's office."
The vast majority were for violations that fall under a seven- day repair and appear policy -- like the 328 waived citations for lamp violations or the 130 for brake light violations. In those instances, Conklin said, people have seven days to address and prove to police they fixed the problem.
"We don't want to make them pay, we just want them to be safe," he said.
Moving citations, such as those issued to the judge's daughter and former
In all of last year, the police department voided roughly 18 speeding charges. Speeding tickets start at
Records show
"It's OK to void any ticket as long we follow the policy of the police department," Conklin said. "Generally speaking, officers follow the policy, but occasionally, as in any profession or any job, you may have an employee that has that moment they'd like to do over again. I'm not suggesting this is one of those, but I am suggesting that officers have those moments."
"Citations other than those of a technical reasons shall be dismissed in open municipal court," the policy reads.
That policy has been in place since
"The officer doesn't have the arbitrary ability to decide to go back in and void the ticket," he said. "Our policy prohibits that."
Conklin conceded there might have been a time in the past where writing off tickets for personal favors happened, but "those days are long gone by," he said.
"The recordkeeping we have because of technology now doesn't allow for that, because all the tickets are accounted for by a number," he said.
Other voided citations, however, were for more serious charges:
-
-
Conklin stated he didn't have the reasons why those tickets were voided, but he said he was confident it wasn't because anyone on the force knew them.
Other
The city prosecutor's and district attorney's offices also have the authority to void tickets.
Of those voided at municipal court, only two listed the city prosecutor's office -- one for an expired license plate and another involving leaving the scene of an accident that had an agreed order.
The prosecutor's office also has the authority to dismiss cases, said
A sizeable percentage of those charges were dismissed either because the defendant agreed to a plea deal, which included dropping one or more charges, or because they corrected the problem, such as fixing a headlight or providing proof of insurance, Miller said. Other common reasons for dismissal are because the defendant received a diversion, the prosecutor determined the case to be too old to be practical to prosecute or because the case was deferred to the district attorney's office.
"It's almost impossible to tell why a case was dismissed, because we don't always record the reason," Miller said.
"The vast majority just pay the ticket," McGowan said. "We never see those."
The office voided another four cases, he said, but because the files were corrupted, the office can't see why they were voided, and thus couldn't release the information.
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