I believe your choice is to sign the ticket or go to court.
No, the choice is sign the ticket or
go to jail. A traffic violation like speeding is a criminal offense - the lowest category of criminal offense to be sure - and there has to be some kind of surety that the defendant will satisfy the court on the charges.
That means pay the ticket or go to court.
In most places a promise to pay the fine or appear in court will satisfy as surety. But, at the officer's discretion, and in compliance with local court rules and the police agency's policies, you can be arrested for minor traffic offenses and be required to make cash bond. Although in Texas, a resident of the state cannot be arrested for speeding
if he or she agrees to appear in court or pay the fine.
In Texas, there are only three ways to not have to sit in jail awaiting trial for
any criminal charge: Pay a cash bond to the Sheriff of the County, have bail agent put up a guarantee that they will pay the cash bond to the Sheriff if you don't come to court, or be released on a personal recognizance bond. The latter is just a written promise to appear in court as required. Without one of those three being satisfied, you sit in jail until the judge makes a final disposition on your case. In the case of a traffic citation, the violator's signature is a form of a personal recognizance bond
My original post was why did the cop let the situation get to the point of having to use the tazer,arent cops trained to diffuse situations just like this one?
We agree partly, you always attract more flies with honey than vinegar. But, there are some factors to consider here that you are not taking into account.
First, speeding in a construction zone is a more serious offense that just speeding down the open road. The workers are usually only protected by a line of orange plastic cones, and the
willing compliance of motorists with reduced speed zones. But, people have problems complying with laws all the time, workers have been hurt and killed by speeding motorists, and the state considers the danger posed by speeding in construction zones to be more serious and thus they doubled the fines for speeding in those areas.
Second, given what we know about the situation, the lady had farther to drive and there apparently are many construction zones in that area; what do her statements and attitude reflect about her
willing compliance to reduce her speed for the rest of her trip? And more importantly, what responsibility does the officer have to the workers and other motorists that she will encounter in the minutes immediately following the traffic stop? Her speed was significantly over the speed limit before she was stopped and got all pissy, I don't see or hear anything that tells me she feels as if she did anything wrong or dangerous. There is nothing in her conduct to indicate that she is going to stop posing a credible threat to the lives of innocent people.
why didnt he just give her the ticket after her refusal to sign it and walk away and let the legal system take care of it,
See all the above reasons first. But in this situation there is a real simple reason - in Texas, Constables are peace officers whose primary job and reason for existence is to serve civil and criminal orders of a Justice of the Peace for the same precinct that he serves. So, the court that has jurisdiction for the traffic citation he has just written is the very court whose papers he serves. When she doesn't pay the ticket or show up in court, who is going to have the responsibility of serving her warrant of arrest? He will.
Also, he is subject to the rules of the Justice of the Peace and the Constable he works for, and both or either of them could have established rules for dealing with violators who refuse to comply with the law or who refuse to acknowledge their responsibility to a citation. He might have been required to arrest her.
people get tickets every day and some people refuse to sign them but they dont all get tazered for getting feisty with the officer,
No, but they usually go to jail for refusing to sign and if they don't want to go to jail the taser is one of those tools to make them change their mind.
i think this bully just wanted to find an easy mark to try out his new toy and a 72yr old grandma was his speed.
NM
Edit to add - Forget to say this in regard to defusing the situation. It can be done provided you have the time to get through the communication roadblocks and filters that the offender is exhibiting. But, the side of a busy freeway is not one of them. It's way too damn dangerous to be out there playing games with somebody.