DuPage County police writing fewer tickets

Law enforcement officials say several factors — including resources, public safety awareness and the economy — have contributed to a decline in the number of traffic tickets issued in DuPage County.

Police officers wrote 149,977 traffic tickets in DuPage between July 2011 and this past June, according to data from the circuit court clerk’s office. That’s 16,905 fewer tickets than the previous year.

Jerome Siegan, a spokesman for the DuPage circuit court clerk’s office, said it’s the second consecutive year traffic violations countywide have dropped. The office doesn’t track the number of warnings issued.

“For some reason, tickets aren’t being written,” said Siegan, adding that 183,862 tickets were issued three years ago. “With all the different police agencies, it’s hard to tell to what happened, but this is a pretty significant drop-off.”

That drop has resulted in less revenue for the county, which receives a portion of fines for its general fund.

Fred Backfield, DuPage’s chief financial officer, recently told county board members that DuPage last year received about $9.1 million from its share of traffic violations. That’s $1.4 million less than in 2009.

“What is inducing the drop-off is not clear,” Backfield said. “There may be a variety of factors, including a reluctance to actually issue tickets as opposed to issuing warnings.”

Police in Naperville, which is in both DuPage and Will counties, acknowledge the number of tickets issued by the department has fallen since 2009, when 27,780 tickets were written. City police issued 25,611 citations in 2010 and 21,596 last year.

“There has been a steady decline,” Naperville Sgt. Gregg Bell said.

But Bell and other law enforcement officials say there are a variety of reasons the overall ticket count has dropped. One is that departments don’t have the same level of staffing that they did several years ago.

Addison police had a five-person traffic unit in 2009, when the department issued 5,183 tickets and 3,447 warnings, officials said. But because of a hiring freeze, the unit dedicated to traffic enforcement had to be reduced — and eventually disbanded — to help ensure the department had enough officers to respond to calls.

“When officers left, we weren’t replacing them,” said officer Chris Weinbrenner, the department’s public information officer. “We had to pull from alternative resources. Unfortunately, we pulled from our traffic unit to cover the manpower on the streets.”

Last year, Addison police issued 4,347 traffic tickets and 2,870 warnings, according to the department.

“We’re hoping to get that (traffic unit) back when we get the resources to do so,” Weinbrenner said. “But at this point, we just don’t have that ability.”

Illinois State Police say they also have been forced to do more with less because of a steady attrition rate. That’s part of the reason why troopers are issuing fewer tickets.

“Retirements have had an impact on our allocated strength, requiring us to stretch our resources and expand responsibilities,” said Monique Bond, a state police spokeswoman.

Bond also said that drivers may be adhering to the safety messages or “cutting down on the extended road trips as a result of the economy.”

Carol Stream Sgt. Brian M. Cooper agrees that the struggling economy has resulted in fewer vehicles on the road. He also believes the village’s reputation for strict traffic enforcement, especially along North Avenue, is influencing motorists.

“When I first started years ago, our average speed on North Avenue was like 62, 64 mph,” said Cooper, who supervises the department’s traffic safety unit. “That has gone down.”

While the number of tickets issued by Carol Stream police has decreased, Cooper stressed that the number of traffic stops hasn’t.

“They (officers) are still doing traffic stops,” Cooper said. “But instead of filling out a citation, they are filling out a warning.”

Some police departments, including Lombard and Wheaton, say their ticket numbers fell at a time when they were directing officers to focus on other enforcement activities.

Wheaton, for example, last year stepped up its efforts to prevent burglaries.

“We made a strategic decision to sacrifice a little bit on the traffic side,” Wheaton Police Chief Mark Field said.

Records show that after a one-year drop, the number of traffic cases from Wheaton have shot back up. “Now we may be seeing that there’s more time for traffic enforcement,” Field said.