Officials with the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Highway Patrol, deny the existence of any system that requires troopers to write a specific number of tickets. But McAbee's lawsuit contends troopers who wrote more tickets were "rewarded with promotions and other benefits," while those who were "perceived to write an insufficient number of tickets were treated with indifference, disdain or outright contempt."

At first glance, that sounds ominous. But what McAbee disparages actually is hard to distinguish from a reasonable effort to maintain an efficient Highway Patrol. As in almost any enterprise, those who produce are rewarded; those who don't are reprimanded.

While South Carolina doesn't have a law that prohibits ticket quotas, North Carolina does.

"We don't want our officers to be writing tickets they wouldn't normally write," said N.C. Highway Patrol spokesman 1st Sgt. Everett Clendenin.

And that touches on a crucial distinction. Quota systems are harmful if they encourage troopers to stretch the law or cite drivers who haven't actually broken the law. But what's wrong with demanding troopers write a "sufficient" number of tickets?

Anyone who has driven the state's highways knows an ample number of drivers exceed the speed limit, many of them by more than the assumed cushion of 8 mph or so. In other words, plenty of people are breaking the law. A conscientious trooper wouldn't have to bend the law to write a bushel-full of tickets in any given month. And if a trooper didn't write many tickets, his superiors might assume he was dogging it.

Most of us, it seems, have an ambivalent attitude toward the Highway Patrol. On the one hand, we don't mind if troopers pull over the guy in the other car who is dangerously exceeding the speed limit. On the other hand, we don't relish the idea of getting pulled over ourselves: "What, give me a ticket? I don't want them being that conscientious!"

The notion of a quota system infers troopers are under pressure from their superiors to write a specific number of tickets even if they have to cite honest, law-abiding citizens to do it. If that is the case, as the disgruntled Edward McAbee states, then heads should roll.

But if troopers are simply being encouraged to do their jobs, that's different. For the safety of all those who drive on our state's highways, we want them to stay busy writing tickets.

Really, no kidding, we do.

Troopers shouldn't have any trouble finding speeders on the state's highways.