I don't think that it would get anyone a beating, it's just that if you were dealing with any kind of professional police agency it would not go over real well, and that is an understatement.
If you were in some backwoods place, who knows? The old, "can I just pay the fine right here, officer?", might work. I wouldn't want to find out the hard way that I mis-calculated, however.
That technique still works like a charm in some other countries, though. Mexico comes to mind.
