Throwing cigarettes out car window---littering? Deserving of a littering ticket?

I guess my thought is that if the butt is going to be seen by someone else, like in town on a road that pedestrians use then write the ticket. If its on the interstate where it will never be seen by human eyes again, then let it go.

 

Yep. Those filters never break down and those butts are there forever. Always pissed me off aswell.

You would throw a gum wrapper out of the window.

Tickets them and let a few speeders off the hook. IMO.

 

I just don't like seeing the litter. Look at any street corner with butts all piled up. That's BS. IMO

 

Question? If they throw out a McDonald's bag, would you ticket them? If the answer is yes, then why wouldn't you ticket for a cigarette butt? Both are littering, and honestly, both are disrespectful.

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Only if you write up those that chew and spit their chaw out the window.... or dump their spit cups out on public property. You talk about disgusting that should be a felony.. I smoke Camel non filtered cigs, they have no butts cough-cough-hack hack

 

That is gone in a couple days though, the cigarette butts stay there for a long time.

 

Exactly. And I tend to notice that some people seem as if to flick it toward the car behind them (I guess thinking they are riding to close to them) remember the old way was to hit your windshield washer fluid and spray them!!!

I know personally I couldn't be a police officer. I'd give a lot of tickets to people. For example, crossing a solid line and then not getting over for the car your just cut off coming off a ramp into merging traffic!!!!!

Give em a ticket


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So i cant throw plants away anymore? Thats biodegradable...and its only disgusting in your opinion...i enjoy it

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I have had numerous butts bounce off my hood . I say write the ticket. There is a reason there are ash trays in vehicles.

 

I hate littering. Anyone that throws cigarette butts out the window is being disrespectful and deserves a ticket. It's their own dirty habit and the rest of us should not have to be exposed to it. To me, its just another piece of garbage that will lay along the road for a very long time.

 

What do you fellow officers say?

What's the letter of the law?

 

Really I would ask my supervisor if its something the dept. wants to take on. I dont like the litering either, even tho I did it for 18 years. Havent done it in 10 years now.

 

Guys on my squad right some littering tickets for the cigarettes. As for the department wanting to take it on.....we have a really good department wherein I can enforce most any law without much of any resistance.

 

Ticket them. Its littering, doesnt take much to keep it in the car and throw it away in the garbage. This is easier for someone to restrain themselves on than compared to a lead foot.

 

I say ticket them.....

 

I watched a local sheriff throw out am empty cigarette box amd have seen him on several occassions flick butts out the window. Oh and these all occurred in the car my taxes helped pay for. Just stupid.

 

Kind of like when a cop doesn't use his blinker,speeds or roll thru a stop sign or how many co agents poach after they retire. Do as I say not as I do kind of thing. Lots of laws on the books that are never enforced.

Just like congressman Charles Rangel cheating on his taxes... And he keeps his job. Every one stay calm and move along.

 

I say if you are contemplating writing a ticket because it "annoys" you, then save the taxpayers a few bucks and just be annoying. Make what should be a quick process as agonizing as possible. Make sure they figure out that getting pulled over is going to cost them time this time and dough + time next time. When you make the stop, get that license and reg. Go to your cruiser, and then jump on here and fill us in for the next 20-30 minutes. Then When you go back, kindly suggest that the beer can in the center console is a better place for those butts, which can be conveniently dumped at the next gas/cigarette run. I smoke, and I almost always have some kind of bottle/ can rolling around my floorboards.

Sidenote, cars mostly don't have ashtrays anymore and cigarette butts although won't chemically break down they physically break down relatively fast. If thrown on a roadway, paper decomposes pretty quick and the non-decomposing acetate filter will physically break down into balls of fibers which birds have been known to use for hi-tech building materials.

Jist of it is, A holes like me would fight the ticket, most likely win and end up costing the system money. The way Cali laws are, most likely I would beat you by mail. If it did come to court, and you actually did show up....I'd definitely let youknow how much dough and time you wasted. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti authority. Me being military explains that pretty well. But, I do hate to lose. So in the end, there's nothing more annoying than sitting there doing nothing while you wait on someone for something miniscule. Be it a wife, girl/boy friend, dog, parts or a LEO......its a chess game of who can be more memorably annoying.

Big picture, you can't stop all the litterbugs. Even if you spent your whole day writing expedient tickets. Chances are, you are mostly forgotten after the fact other than a cursory glance to the sides and in mirrors before they do it again. It would be like trying to take down a hill of ants with a magnifying glass. Unless you had an effective way of showing everyone that they'll get fined for it, like the click-it or ticket campaign, or sandwich boarding so everyone knows what the stop is for, what is the point? I don't see a campaign happening, and I think publicly announcing what someone is being pulled over for is wrong/maybe illegal. On the other hand, hi-risk fire areas where it is already posted is another issue. Lives, homes and property are at risk because of a careless butt.

 

What about the guy who throws a used condom out the window on a back road? You going to pick that up and bag it for evidence too. LOL It's not biodegradable.

 

While I'd love nothing more than to see those tickets be written, I think there's a bigger picture to look at here. One that I think a lot of people lose sight of - and that's how we (the public) perceive and interact with the police. It's always bothered me that when I see a cop sitting on the side of the road the first thing I do is pucker my bunghole and start thinking about all of the little things I may be doing wrong that could cause me to get a ticket or be harassed. Am I speeding? Hit the brakes! Is my seatbelt on? Is it visible? Are all of my lights working? Did I change lanes without signaling? Did I come to a complete stop at that last stop sign? Then the minute I pass them I'm looking in my mirror for the cherries to come on. Despite that fact that in most cases I'm doing nothing more than minding my own business driving to work or maybe on the way to go hunting.

My point here is that writing tickets for stuff like throwing a cigarette butt out the window, while wrong and certainly vile, just makes people think what a bunch of a-holes the cops are. We get a general distaste in our mouths and dislike for people who are, in reality, supposed to be protecting us.

Granted, there's a-holes in every job and every aspect of life and I get that. But I just think that police of all professions should be more conscious of the way the public perceives them in order to get the respect and cooperation they deserve when they need it the most. As someone else pointed out, is giving someone a litering ticket really going to change the world? Not likely. What is is going to do is cause that person to think cops are jags.

Now if you see some suspicious activity going on and you want to use the butt out the window as an excuse to get a closer look, I have no problem with that. I just don't see the point in giving a ticket to a guy who is on his home from work and tosses a butt out the window.

Oh, and don't forget the "don't you have something better to be doing than giving me a ticket for tossing a cigarette butt out the window" argument that's sure to come up. And I guess in some regards I can agree with that.