Check the Skill Level. . . Shut Up!

So tickets are being accepted by Godd both with the boxes checked and unchecked. Which basically means he couldn't care less about how they're turned in. Well, most of them have the boxes checked so I asked a patrol to fix one of their tickets. When they went on to explain that they always turn them in this way, I told them I would find out how Godd wants them done and get back to them. Blotter Gossip lasted forever. Not to mention we're never given the opportunity for questions unless he's the one that instigates it. So I had to interrupt and fish for the answer on this one. I asked him, "Some of the patrols check the boxes and some don't, but I was wondering how you want it done so that it's the same all the way across the board from now on?" He told me to check the skill level one manual because that's what he goes by. Allow me to explain why he is a liar. First of all, the skill level one manual doesn't cover traffic tickets which, oh by the way, are DD form 1408. I'm willing to bet, though he looks at them every day, he still doesn't know that they're a DD form and not a DA form. The other problem is, they're not in a manual, they're in an tArmy regulation, 190-45 which covers the basic way to fill one out. (Chapter 7, section 6). The FM that covers MP work is FM 19-25, which I found via google. The problem is that I can't find any manual or publication that covers the exact "proper" way to fill out a DD form 1408, or military traffic ticket. The other problem is that, though I've been told that FMs are for guidance only and not law, 19-25 covers pacing with patrol cars and how the speedometers are suppose to be calibrated at a minimum of every three months to ensure that if & when a speeding ticket is written using the pacing method, it's a legitimate ticket and won't get thrown out. Another problem is that the DD form 1408 was originally designed as a warning so that points would not be put on the driver's license and the soldier would not have to pay money and the command would have the opportunity to fix the problem themselves. Though the idea of how they are suppose to be handled has changed, the publications governing such use have not.

The moral of this story is that though we live in the information age, there seems to be a major lack of such within the people who seek to be law. In other words, power hungry morons determine the definition of things, even though I may have the correct, opposing information in hand. FML