Warren, Michigan ( The Weekly Vice ) -- Officer David Kanapsky of the Warren police department is at odds with his community and finds himself under the scrutiny of local media who have unraveled a 'tickets for overtime' scheme that some officers are using to cash in big on ticket writing.
In a suburb of Warren Michigan there's a loophole in the system - A loophole Officer Kanapsky has found and has taken full advantage of to the tune of over $21,000 in paid overtime.
When an officer writes a ticket in Warren and appears in court in his off-time, he's paid a minimum of 4 hours in additional overtime, according to acting Police Commissioner Jere Green.
Officer Kanapsky writes a lot of tickets. Thousands and thousands of tickets each year. Many of them are written for stop sign violations. In 2007, officer Kanapsky wrote nearly 2,400 tickets for stop sign violations alone. Violations that local residents with perfect records are swearing they didn't commit.
In case after case they come before the Judge, pointing to a perfect driving record or swearing they stopped "because they know the officer sits and waits for them." In case after case, the Judge sides with the cop as an 'unbiased witness', however Kanapsky has every reason to be biased. Regardless of the ruling, he keeps showing up, and the cash register rolls.
Local news station WXYZ out of Detroit interviewed several of Kanapsky's victims. Mostly middle 40's moms and well mannered senior citizens who had stainless driving records before assisting officer Kanapsky's with his overtime bankroll. One by one they swear before the Judge their innocence, and one by one the cash registers roll.
The news station sent a film crew out to the courtroom and captured video of Kanapsky, a cool cat who hardly looks the judge in the eye as he hammers down the defendant's claim. As soon as the guilty verdict is read, Kanapsky prepares for his next
While a few bold citizens risk the points on their driving record to take the matter to trial, most residents simply plea to a lesser charge and pay the fine to avoid the tarnish on their perfect record. That's just fine with the city, as the cash register still rolls. That's fine with Kanapsky too, who is paid either way.
In 2007, Kanapsky was able to enhance his pay an additional $21,562.00, bringing his total pay to just over $87,000.00.
Despite the media scrutiny, there have been no reported attempts by investigators to look into the matter as of yet. No legislation is on the agenda to close the 'tickets for overtime' loophole. As long as the citizens of warren keep paying, the cash registers roll. And it's not likely that Kanapsky would have it any other way.
The Weekly Vice Opinion:
Let's do some simple math. Given a 5 day work week, times 52 weeks per year, there are 260 work days. Divide those days into 2400 tickets and what do you come up with?
In 2007, Kanapsky averaged nearly 10 stop sign violations per day alone. This is in addition to all of the other tickets he has written, but let's just focus on the stop sign violations.
In an eight hour shift, that would mean Kanapsky is writing over 1 stop sign ticket per hour. Each violation must be documented, a license plate check, writing out the actual ticket and other subsequent paperwork. This rules out driving time and start/end shift routines.
Practically speaking, would Kanapsky really have THAT many citizens violating the law in front of him nonstop with no wait time in between to catch someone?
What is Kanapsky doing on the job BESIDES spending his whole day popping citizens for stop sign violations over and over? Does Kanapsky do anything to actually protect the citizens of his city, or does he simply write one ticket after another for "supposed" violations?
All of this nonstop ticket writing would also force Kanapsky's court appearances into overtime. Forced overtime. We also assume that Kanapsky would be called to assist from time to time, meaning Kanapsky would really have to get busy writing tickets on his independent time, to keep pace with the tickets he has been logging.
We're going to go ahead and say what the local news station has stopped just short of saying. These city officials are crooked - for ignoring the obvious. Five minutes of simple math would easily reveal the cop's scheme, and it's a shame the citizens of Warren have put up with it.
Elections are always around the corner Warren, and we encourage you to take note of the Judges in that circuit and city officials, who obviously expect you'll be voting for them again.
To view News Channel WXYZ's video report on this case, click H E R E
Danny Vice
The Weekly Vice
http://weeklyvice.blogspot.com
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3 comments:
The ony thing this officer was told to do was no longer write stop sign violations. He must now look for other violations. Now keep in mind does anyone ever count up to 6 seconds after stopping at a stop sign? So you may have stopped but if you proceed before 6 seconds you are in violation of running the stop sign. You can verify this with DMV or any police agancy. This is just like when your front tires of your vechicle goes past the white lines at a stop light. You have just ran a red light.
My father solved this problem in Point Place (Toledo) Ohio a few years ago.
Dad was about 85 at the time.
He simply distributed non magnetic roofing nails in the officers favorite
location. He would do this as often as necessary.
Dad is gone now, at 89, but I remember him for his persistence in many
things. Highway robbery is just one.
It figures, its Warren, Michigan. I have personally witnessed B.S. there on many occassions.
One time, a court appointed attorney was also running for some office. That is biased.
A Warren cop beat up my daughter, who is 90 lbs, soaking wet. Why? She was in a car accident,and while outside her car, talking to cop, leaned in the window of his car a bit with her arms, because her coat was in car and she was cold. He asked her to move away, she did, but he wanted to keep talking to her. He didn't get out of his car, 'cuz it was so cold and he was fat, but kept talking to her and she naturally gravitated to the heat and put her arms in again. He beat her up and arrested her. She made a formal complaint and won, yet he is still out there abusing others, behind the badge.
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