By Rebecca Beitsch
Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. — People across Central Florida have offered cash, watches and even alluded to performing sexual favors -- all to escape a traffic ticket or arrest.
When that doesn’t work, some people resort to threats.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, bribes have decreased during the past three years. The number of threats against officers, however, has climbed by the hundreds in that time.
“I’m going to snipe you from 60 yards. I’m going to find you in a group and single you out and blast you,” one man told a deputy.
“I’m going to rip your throat out,” a woman said.
“I just got out of prison after serving 12 years. You think I care? I’ve killed people before. I bet you have a family, don’t you? We’ll see what happens,” a man said.
These are some of the cleaner threats made against officers this year alone. From 2007 to 2008, the number of threats against law enforcement increased by more than 12.5 percent; the number of bribes dropped by nearly 16.5 percent during the same period.
“You could see increased threats as people are in trouble with this economy, money’s tight and they don’t want to pay a ticket,” Bruce Benson, an economics professor at Florida State University, said.
The pressure from an economic downturn may lead to a change in some people’s behavior said Jay Corzine, a professor of sociology at University of Central Florida.
“A decent explanation of why threats are up is the economy,” Corzine said. “If someone’s stressed out, they’re more likely to get into a verbal argument.”
Ilan Shrira, a psychology professor at University of Florida, agreed that the economy can have a major effect on behavior.
“When people feel economically threatened they tend to be more anxious and less happy,” said Shrira.
Many of the people who resort to threats or bribes may have impaired judgment from alcohol or drugs or have long criminal histories, said Kim Cannaday, a spokeswoman for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.
In Osceola County, where there has been one bribery attempt this year, the suspect was arrested after being very insistent.
After being pulled over for driving erratically, Carlos Rocha-Nevarez asked whether there was anything he could do “to take care of it,” said Twis Lizasuain, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. He later tried to stuff money into the pockets of the officer, she said.
“You can tell when someone is joking or when someone is serious,” said Lizasuain.
Rocha-Nevarez was later booked for driving under the influence, records show. The case is pending.
It is this clouded judgment, said Benson, that causes people to see a threat or a bribe as a practical solution.
“In a way they’re substitutes. If you can make a credible threat, then you don’t have to make a bribe,” said Benson. “If you can’t make a credible threat, if you want to try to avoid the ticket, you’d be inclined to try a bribe.”
Shrira agreed. “If people don’t have money, their first tendency is going to be a threat over a bribe.”
In either case, officers aren’t likely to be persuaded.
“Most police wouldn’t trust most people who wanted to bribe them,” said Eugene Paoline, a criminal-justice professor at UCF. “They would think they were being set up.”
Benson, who studies the economics of corruption, said the actual number of threats to officers may be much higher because police seldom report incidents unless the threat is viewed as credible or the person is insistent about offering the bribe.
“A police officer’s life is all day filling out reports,” added Paoline. Just because someone makes a common threat, “am I really going to write up a report for that? I hear that every day.”
Copyright 2009 Orlando Sentinel