BY MIKE CETERA
The Sun-Times over the weekend had an interesting piece analyzing traffic stop data. The paper found that "area police departments end up writing tickets for just 66 percent of all motorists they stop."
Some of the most lenient officers, the analysis found, patrol the streets of Geneva, where 21 percent of traffic stops result in tickets. Where are your chances the worst of getting out of a ticket? The Kane County town of Gilberts, where just one of the 1,511 traffic stops didn't result in a ticket.
That's one lucky motorist.
From the story:
The west suburban town of Geneva, which straddles the intersection of Roosevelt Road and Route 31, also gets a lot of traffic, but its ticket rate is the lowest in the area -- 21 percent. All serious violations are ticketed, but almost all the rest get written warnings instead, police Cmdr. Joe Frega said."Our policing is based on educating the public and inducing voluntary compliance," he said. "We don't believe we're out there to punish, we believe we're out there to reduce traffic accidents and make our roads safer."
Geneva's police department also spends a lot of time patrolling residential areas in response to complaints about speeding. "We'll stop people when they get up to 31, 32 mph and give them a warning and tell them to slow down," Frega said. "But six miles over the limit doesn't always warrant a $75 ticket."
How do other towns stack up?
* Maple Park: 85.11 percent of traffic stops result in tickets.
* North Aurora: 83.42 percent
* Sugar Grove: 77.52 percent
* Naperville: 74.05 percent
* Yorkville: 48.89 percent
* Aurora: 45.23 percent
* Batavia: 44.36 percent
* St. Charles: 38.95 percent
* Elburn: 35.58 percent
* Oswego: 31.77 percent
* Montgomery: 27.64 percent
* Plano: 23.56 percent
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