“Are you guys expected to write a certain amount of tickets? Could you go your whole shift without giving a ticket?” A follower of Officer Craig Sroka posed the question on his TikTok account. The Rhode Islander uses social media to answer questions about his job. The thing is, Sroka explains…there’s just always someone doing something “silly” in front of a cop, but it’s not always going to be addressed. He breaks down the expectations supervisors have about traffic stops when police officers are on duty.

“Sometimes you’re so busy you don’t have time to conduct a vehicle stop.”

Officer Sroka explains that whether he writes traffic tickets depends on the shift. On any given day, there’s no telling what curveballs each one will lob at responders.

“I’ve gone shifts without pulling a car over,” he confirms. Say he’s headed out on a call that isn’t exactly an emergency, but it’s important to provide a timely response. For example, there’s a verbal altercation happening that might turn physically violent. If he pulled a car over after that call, he’d delay his response. This could potentially allow the fight to take a turn for the worse.

Cops also need to keep officer safety in mind

Sroka also explains that a patrolling officer might avoid initiating traffic stops if they’re short of backup. “When officers are tied up, you don’t want to be pulling cars over.”

At certain times, an officer might be the only free responder on duty during that time. They could be handling multiple zones at once while other officers take priority calls. In these cases, the cop might not pull any cars over. After all, opening a can that requires backup isn’t ideal in those moments, since no one else is immediately available to come help. “It could become an officer safety problem.”

If anyone of authority gets worried about an officer “not being proactive” – in other words, not issuing traffic tickets – they can easily check the record. Most of the time, a lack of traffic citations means the police officer in question was busy with more important tasks, like responding to a domestic emergency.

“As an officer, you have to know, what does your board look like?” The cop explains that you have to be aware of both the active calls at hand plus how available partnering officers are to help if needed. In the end, Sroka doesn’t seem concerned about a traffic ticket quota at all.