Florida Officer Fired For Writing Too Many Tickets
From its long abandoned practice of ticketing shirtless joggers and issuing ID cards to gardeners, the rules in Palm Beach have always been different.
Now, in response to complaints from town residents who agree that rules on the tony island should be different, police officers are being investigated and fired for writing too many traffic tickets.
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Officer William Eaton, who has patrolled the town’s ficus-lined streets for six years, was fired this week. Union leaders say two other officers face similar fates.
In a termination letter signed Tuesday, the town’s director of public safety says Eaton’s ticket-writing frenzy violated several department rules, including conduct unbecoming and using his position to intimidate the citizenry. His attorney views it differently.
“It was a clear and utter witch hunt,” said attorney Elizabeth Parker, who said Eaton will fight to be reinstated.
She doesn’t dispute that the number of traffic tickets Eaton wrote soared, going from 222 citations in 2011 to 115 in one month this year.
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