Letters: SC troopers targeting the wrong violators

I got stopped the other day and issued a ticket for not having myself properly secured inside my pickup truck (no seat belt). During the traffic stop, I asked the officer how long he had been a trooper. “Ten years,” he said proudly.

I asked how many tickets he had written in those 10 years for a motorist passing a stopped school bus. His answer: “Three.” I asked how many seat belt infractions he had written, and he said “a bunch.” A mighty proud officer for writing “a bunch” of seat belt violations but only three for actions that endanger children’s lives.

I drove a school bus for 14 years, and I had motorists passing my bus almost every day, and only once did I have an officer stop one of them. Kinda puts the priorities in perspective.

This story was originally published April 23, 2017 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Letters: SC troopers targeting the wrong violators."