Appearing to recognize at least one of the officers in a downtown Hamilton courtroom on Thursday, witness David Vaughan said he didn't want to make trouble for him.

He interrupted questioning and said he didn't want to "hurt" Const. Bhupesh Gulati, one of the accused.

"I really don't want to hurt Gulati," he said. "I thought he was a good cop. I'm not here to ruin his life."

Vaughan, 64, said he has received "a lot" of tickets, often for drinking in public, often in Hamilton's Gore Park.

Vaughan's testimony added to a picture where Hamilton's downtown-focused ACTION and mounted officers issue dozens of tickets to the same people, often in the same places and for similar offences, day after day.

Vaughan was the second witness this week to ask for a cold beer instead of the cup of water offered in court.

Outside, he said he's been trying to take it easier and not drink as much.

I asked Vaughan: When somebody gives you a ticket, what do you do? <a href="https://t.co/dvXFDaokZP">pic.twitter.com/dvXFDaokZP</a> —@kellyrbennett

Four Hamilton police officers from the ACTION and mounted units are charged with falsifying tickets in 2014. Court has previously heard the officers on the ACTION team were trying to reach a goal of 100 to 120 tickets per officer per year.

Constables Bhupesh Gulati, Shawn Smith, Stephen Travale and Daniel Williams are each charged with obstructing justice between April 1 and Oct. 1, 2014.

Each was also charged with fabricating between two and six tickets, and each pleaded not guilty to all charges.

'If you're looking for the indicators of unreliability'

Vaughan is one of a series of witnesses, most of them among a transient population frequently ticketed downtown who allegedly weren't handed some copies of tickets written against them.

One of the defence attorneys raised the question of whether being hit by a car recently and sustaining a brain injury had affected his memory.

"I wouldn't say that," Vaughan said. "I know where I live."

Outside of court, one of the defence attorneys, Gary Clewley, said the four witnesses who've testified so far to receiving hundreds of tickets over the years aren't pristine sources on what actually happened.

"If you're looking for the indicators of unreliability, they're all present in all of them," Clewley said.

He said those "indicators" include alcoholism, injury and faulty memory.

'Guess which bar had the most potential'

But also testifying in the trial are officers and superiors who are asked to comment on protocols and practices followed by police assigned to ride horses, walk and ride bikes on patrol.

Attorney Gary Clewley, centre, leaves court Tuesday afternoon with Const. Bhupesh Gulati, left and Const. Dan Williams. Gulati and Williams are among four officers on trial for allegedly falsifying tickets in 2014. (Kelly Bennett/CBC)

One of them was Const. Edward Penner, who was on the mounted unit at the same time as Const. Smith, one of the accused.

Penner's testimony revealed some of the particular features and worries of riding a horse through the downtown core.

It can be hard to get where you're going as a mounted officer, Penner said. People stop the officers to take a photo with the horse "every two feet," he joked.

Often it is up to the team scheduled that day or night to "guess which bar had the most potential for violence or trouble" and go there. That often takes them to "the chaotic" Hess Village.

Penner described an overnight shift where he was sent to respond to a suicide call, then went to deal with a fight involving 50 people in Hess Village.

The officers are also responsible for cleaning and grooming the horses.

Keeping accurate notes can be difficult, just physically.

"It's hard," Penner said. "you have to put the reins under your leg, so you have no hands on the wheel, so to speak."

Sometimes people refuse to take their copy of the ticket, and the officer won't usually dismount to go after them.

Penner said sometimes, if someone refused the ticket, he would file his copy of the ticket and then discard the green copy that was supposed to go to the offender.

"It's my copy that matters," he said.

Asked if he might drop that green copy in the shredder box, he said he might.

At the end of a shift, sometimes he gave tickets to another officer to take back to the station to file, he said.

The trial continues Friday morning.

kelly.bennett@cbc.ca | @kellyrbennett