In Maryland it doesn't pay just to watch your speed. You'd better watch where it is you're speeding.
In Baltimore and Baltimore County, fewer than 10 percent of speeding tickets charge the driver with exceeding the limit by less than 10 mph. More than half go to people charged with going 20, 30 or even 40 mph faster than allowed.
But in Montgomery County, police give 60 percent of speeding tickets to someone charged with going 1 to 9 mph over the limit. Only 20 percent of ticketed motorists are caught for exceeding the limit by more than 20 mph.
The stark contrast among jurisdictions was revealed in an analysis by The Sun of statewide District Court records from 2006. According to police and law enforcement experts, such extreme variations are less a reflection of driver behavior than of police practices in the state's 23 counties and Baltimore City.
In some jurisdictions, officers routinely give "on-the-street discounts" -- writing tickets for speeds far less than measured by their radar gun readings -- while other departments discourage the practice.
In Baltimore County, senior officers frown on discounts, according to police department spokesman Bill Toohey. "We would expect it not to be done widely or often," he said. "This agency is very big on going by the book."
Officers in Montgomery appear to be guided by a different book. Cpl. Jimmy Robinson, a county police spokesman, said the high percentage of tickets in the lowest speed range -- which carries the mildest penalty -- does not mean officers there are routinely ticketing drivers for petty violations.
"We are very proud of the caliber of the citizens that we serve in Montgomery County," Robinson said. "Is it really fair to jam this person with a 3-point citation and a multi-hundred-dollar fine?" County officers have the discretion to give a ticket or not, he said, and there's no law that says they have to write a ticket for the precise speed recorded on a radar gun.
The discrepancies from county to county raise questions about unequal treatment of speeders in different parts of the state. For instance, the records suggest that a driver going 76 mph in a 55 mph zone on the Baltimore Beltway in Towson faces a strong possibility of severe penalties -- including points that can drive up insurance rates. Meanwhile, a motorist going 76 mph in a 55 mph zone on the Capital Beltway in Bethesda has much better odds of getting a slap on the wrist.
Under Maryland law, speeding violations are punishable by varying amounts based on speed level. A ticket for exceeding the limit by 1 mph to 9 mph carries a penalty of $80 and a point. The penalties escalate in steps to $530 and 5 points for going 40 mph or more over the limit.
For any of these offenses, District Court judges have the discretion to convict the driver at a lesser speed than recorded on the ticket. But the data indicate that in some counties, motorists are getting their discounts before they reach the courtroom.
John Pawuk of Reisterstown, who was in Catonsville District Court last week after receiving a ticket for going 77 mph on the Beltway, received probation before judgment and a reduced fine. But he was still aggrieved at being treated as "a common criminal" by the officer who pulled him over.
"This county is money-hungry," Pawuk said after being shown the speeding statistics. "I just know in this county you can't get a break."
The Maryland State Police have been headed since early last year by the same man who led the Baltimore County police in 2006, Col. Terrence B. Sheridan. His spokesman, Greg Shipley, said Sheridan's philosophy is that while troopers have discretion to give a warning, the tickets that are issued shouldn't understate the speed.
"Once you get to the facts of the case, as a general rule it should be written at what it is and let any further disposition be done at the court," Shipley said.
It's not clear that policy was consistently in force in 2006 and earlier.
In Calvert County, where the State Police do much of the traffic law enforcement, 79 percent of the speeding tickets issued in 2006 charged infractions of less than 10 mph. Only 11 percent were for violations of 20 mph or more. Charles and St. Mary's counties, also in Southern Maryland, showed a similar pattern.
But in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore, also largely patrolled by State Police, the numbers were almost reversed. Only 4 percent of the tickets fell into the lowest class of speed violation in 2006, while 54 percent charged speeding of more than 20 mph over the limit.
Doug Ward, director of the Division of Public Safety Leadership at the Johns Hopkins University, said ticketing practices can be deeply ingrained in the culture of a police department.
Ward, a former State Police major, recalled that when he was a trooper in Prince George's County in the 1970s, the county's two barracks were known for their different speed tolerances. Forestville troopers would write a ticket for going 10 mph over the limit on the Capital Beltway, he said, while those working out of Greenbelt wouldn't issue a ticket for less than 20 mph over.
In some cases, the ticket patterns could reflect local roadways. Shipley and Ward said the high percentage of 20-mph-plus violations in Talbot County could reflect a long stretch of U.S. 50 where motorists get clear of the Bay Bridge and Kent Island and start speeding toward the beaches on a highway posted at 55 mph.
"They're breaking free and hitting the gas," Shipley said.
In Baltimore County, Ward said, the high percentage of high-speed tickets being given could reflect local police priorities away from traffic and toward responding to crime reports. "You've got to stand out to get one of their tickets. You've got to make yourself a big target," he said.
Ward said that few officers would actually issue a ticket to someone exceeding the speed limit by less than 10 mph. He said speeders going 10 to 19 mph over the limit account for the largest number of traffic stops, adding that violations of 20 mph or more almost always bring a ticket.
The District Court records are not a pure reflection of any one department's policy. In Baltimore County, for instance, the State Police and Maryland Transportation Authority Police play an important role in speed enforcement. In smaller counties, the State Police and the local sheriff's office may share traffic enforcement. Some counties have many municipal police forces.
Statewide, the records show that the largest percentage of speeding tickets written -- 41 percent -- fall into the category of 10-19 mph over the limit. On the Lower Eastern Shore, a disproportionate share of tickets are issued in that range.
For instance, 80 percent of Somerset County's 2006 tickets were for violations of 10-19 mph and only 1 percent for 1-9 mph. The statistics are similar for Wicomico and Worcester counties.
Meanwhile, in all three counties, the percentage of tickets for 20 mph-plus violations was roughly half that of the Middle Shore counties of Talbot, Dorchester, Queen Anne's and Caroline.
Regardless of what happens in court, Ward argues that when a ticket is issued, it should list the actual speed. "The evidence should be the evidence," he said.
michael.dresser@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Mike Himowitz contributed to this article.
For a detailed look at speeding tickets by county, visit www.baltimoresun.com/speeding