A viewer asked, “I got pulled over and was given a written warning. The cop told me that they keep track of this stuff in the system. What does this mean?”
News 6 traffic safety expert Steve Montiero’s answer:
Let me clear up any confusion. A written warning has zero effect on your driver’s license or your vehicle insurance. Now that that’s out of the way let me address what this “system” is. Over the last several years law enforcement agencies have started to document literally everything officers do. This is not only good for them but good for you.
For example, let’s say you’re driving to work one day and you get pulled over by a police officer. At the end of that traffic stop, you drive away with a written warning but that officer tells you it’s now in the system. What they mean by this is it’s in the law enforcement agency’s system. The agency that issued you the citation keeps track of all types of corrective measures. If you were pulled over the following week or maybe even the next day by the same agency they would see you were given a warning by a previous officer. The system would show the time, place and violation that occurred with the previous officer that wrote you the warning. This could turn a warning easily into a ticket if you have too many warnings in their “system."