12 thoughts on “Policing As A Civic Revenue Stream”
Of course, that practice is nearly universal. I have no problem being able to find cops on the road, busting people for driving over the speed limit or handing out parking tickets. Not really the case in doing anything to prevent actual crimes against property or person. And the reason for that is quite simple–one pays, the other doesn’t.
And don’t forget about civil forfeiture.
A friend of mine who lives in Stearns County, Minnesota was fined because a tiny hole was discovered in his tail light. How the deputy even noticed this was inexplicable. He figured that the deputy pulled him over and just looked for something to fine.
Many now in Stearns County are being pulled over and forced to pay a fine for a “violation”.
Hey, somebody’s got to pay for those over generous pensions.
Our local municipality is one of many in the state that started putting up “red light cameras”, and managed to find a vendor who was able to sell them speed cameras as part of that package. The state DOT finally got around to passing rules and guidelines that are mandated to be used to justify the placement of these cameras and dictate their location (not within so many feet of a speed limit change, etc.).
Many municipalities, but one in particular, have fought against these new regulations. Why? Because the program creates $4.7 Million in annual revenue, with 66% of that revenue placed directly in the city’s coffers and 33% going to the vendor.
90% of the citations were from only 2 of the 29 camera locations in the city, both on a heavily-traveled portion of the US Interstate system: one less than 1,000′ from a speed limit change down from 60 MPH to 55 MPH on the way into the city center; the other on the way out of the city center, where you can see the increased speed limit sign a short distance from the cameras, but also situated at the top of an on-ramp, where people are trying to merge with other traffic and can ONLY see the higher speed limit sign.
As a “civil penalty”, the speeding tickets and red-light tickets don’t appear on one’s driving record, and therefore have no compulsory effect on one’s driving habits, as they carry no criminal penalty. Put someone in court for blowing a red light and t-boning a car? That should affect their behavior. Send them a ticket in the mail for blowing that same red light? As long as they can afford it, they’ll just keep doing it.
In fact, the City cites reduced crashes as an indicator that the speed camera program is working as designed. Many researchers have stated that the continued increase in automated tickets is an indicator that the cameras have no behavioural effect whatsoever (which is accurate), and that the reduction in crashes is unrelated to the use of the cameras.
The City, of course, claims that taking down or moving the cameras will be cost-prohibitive and that manual enforcement of the speed limits will cost human lives because it will not only put officers at risk on the side of the road, but it will also keep them from being able to patrol neighborhoods for other crimes.
The complete tone-deafness on the part of city officials is amazing, to say the least, and definitely quite instructive.
To clarify, the program in that city ALONE brings in $4.7M in revenue. State-wide is much higher.
There’s another popular trick with those red light enforcement cameras – shorten the time that the yellow light is on to a couple seconds. This was proven in some districts and they were forced to remove the cameras.
In this particular case, the red light cameras don’t write many citations at all. The vast majority of “violations” of the red light cameras around here are for ambulances and fire engines on emergency calls.
The main issue locally is that the cameras were sold to the general public as “red light cameras”, but nobody found out until they were installed that they were “red light AND speed cameras”. And they weren’t even installed at the most dangerous red-light intersections – at least one has been invalidated by the DOT for being a mere 500′ from a drop in speed limit. It’s also only 1 block from a hospital and 2 blocks from the main Fire house (see above).
Contrast that with the Chicago suburbs, where the vast majority of their red light cameras seem to be set up at intersections with right hand turn lanes, and are for red lights ONLY (in fact, when I ask Chicagoans if their red light cameras are also speed cameras, I often get a rather quizzical look, followed by disbelief that any jurisdiction would do such a thing). They seem to be programmed in such a way that a person can still make a right on red if allowed, provided they come to a full stop first.
“They seem to be programmed in such a way that a person can still make a right on red if allowed, provided they come to a full stop first.”
Yup but make sure you stop before those white lines or you will get a ticket anyway. Where I live, a human reviews all of the pictures before any tickets are written but they don’t cut people much slack.
Some things never change. James “Jimmy” (“Beau James”) Walker, mayor of New York from 1926 to 1932, ran the city as his own private playground. His police arrested women at random, and charged them with prostitution. They were fined, and the police got a kickback in their paychecks. A woman who was going to testify in the matter was found murdered, prompting FDR to step in.
Walker did receive his just deserts, though, having been made to star in Good Times.
That last comment was Dynomite!
Not to be confused with Dolomite!
Johnny B touched on it a little but the problem is not the cops, its the politicians who tell them what to do. It’s also the politicians that put in the red light and speed cameras.
But cops are not saints either. Try being a young man in a college town driving around at night. They may, or not, have a pretext to pull you over but the first question will be if you have been drinking.
“I was just following orders” is not a defence.
If my boss told me to do something I found ethically questionable, I would refuse, even if that mean finding another job. Anyone who goes along is at least as responsible as those who gave the order, since the order would achieve nothing it people didn’t follow it.
And there are few things that destroy respect for the law faster than automated enforcement of absolute laws.
Of course, that practice is nearly universal. I have no problem being able to find cops on the road, busting people for driving over the speed limit or handing out parking tickets. Not really the case in doing anything to prevent actual crimes against property or person. And the reason for that is quite simple–one pays, the other doesn’t.
And don’t forget about civil forfeiture.
A friend of mine who lives in Stearns County, Minnesota was fined because a tiny hole was discovered in his tail light. How the deputy even noticed this was inexplicable. He figured that the deputy pulled him over and just looked for something to fine.
Many now in Stearns County are being pulled over and forced to pay a fine for a “violation”.
Hey, somebody’s got to pay for those over generous pensions.
Our local municipality is one of many in the state that started putting up “red light cameras”, and managed to find a vendor who was able to sell them speed cameras as part of that package. The state DOT finally got around to passing rules and guidelines that are mandated to be used to justify the placement of these cameras and dictate their location (not within so many feet of a speed limit change, etc.).
Many municipalities, but one in particular, have fought against these new regulations. Why? Because the program creates $4.7 Million in annual revenue, with 66% of that revenue placed directly in the city’s coffers and 33% going to the vendor.
90% of the citations were from only 2 of the 29 camera locations in the city, both on a heavily-traveled portion of the US Interstate system: one less than 1,000′ from a speed limit change down from 60 MPH to 55 MPH on the way into the city center; the other on the way out of the city center, where you can see the increased speed limit sign a short distance from the cameras, but also situated at the top of an on-ramp, where people are trying to merge with other traffic and can ONLY see the higher speed limit sign.
As a “civil penalty”, the speeding tickets and red-light tickets don’t appear on one’s driving record, and therefore have no compulsory effect on one’s driving habits, as they carry no criminal penalty. Put someone in court for blowing a red light and t-boning a car? That should affect their behavior. Send them a ticket in the mail for blowing that same red light? As long as they can afford it, they’ll just keep doing it.
In fact, the City cites reduced crashes as an indicator that the speed camera program is working as designed. Many researchers have stated that the continued increase in automated tickets is an indicator that the cameras have no behavioural effect whatsoever (which is accurate), and that the reduction in crashes is unrelated to the use of the cameras.
The City, of course, claims that taking down or moving the cameras will be cost-prohibitive and that manual enforcement of the speed limits will cost human lives because it will not only put officers at risk on the side of the road, but it will also keep them from being able to patrol neighborhoods for other crimes.
The complete tone-deafness on the part of city officials is amazing, to say the least, and definitely quite instructive.
To clarify, the program in that city ALONE brings in $4.7M in revenue. State-wide is much higher.
There’s another popular trick with those red light enforcement cameras – shorten the time that the yellow light is on to a couple seconds. This was proven in some districts and they were forced to remove the cameras.
In this particular case, the red light cameras don’t write many citations at all. The vast majority of “violations” of the red light cameras around here are for ambulances and fire engines on emergency calls.
The main issue locally is that the cameras were sold to the general public as “red light cameras”, but nobody found out until they were installed that they were “red light AND speed cameras”. And they weren’t even installed at the most dangerous red-light intersections – at least one has been invalidated by the DOT for being a mere 500′ from a drop in speed limit. It’s also only 1 block from a hospital and 2 blocks from the main Fire house (see above).
Contrast that with the Chicago suburbs, where the vast majority of their red light cameras seem to be set up at intersections with right hand turn lanes, and are for red lights ONLY (in fact, when I ask Chicagoans if their red light cameras are also speed cameras, I often get a rather quizzical look, followed by disbelief that any jurisdiction would do such a thing). They seem to be programmed in such a way that a person can still make a right on red if allowed, provided they come to a full stop first.
“They seem to be programmed in such a way that a person can still make a right on red if allowed, provided they come to a full stop first.”
Yup but make sure you stop before those white lines or you will get a ticket anyway. Where I live, a human reviews all of the pictures before any tickets are written but they don’t cut people much slack.
Some things never change. James “Jimmy” (“Beau James”) Walker, mayor of New York from 1926 to 1932, ran the city as his own private playground. His police arrested women at random, and charged them with prostitution. They were fined, and the police got a kickback in their paychecks. A woman who was going to testify in the matter was found murdered, prompting FDR to step in.
Walker did receive his just deserts, though, having been made to star in Good Times.
That last comment was Dynomite!
Not to be confused with Dolomite!
Johnny B touched on it a little but the problem is not the cops, its the politicians who tell them what to do. It’s also the politicians that put in the red light and speed cameras.
But cops are not saints either. Try being a young man in a college town driving around at night. They may, or not, have a pretext to pull you over but the first question will be if you have been drinking.
“I was just following orders” is not a defence.
If my boss told me to do something I found ethically questionable, I would refuse, even if that mean finding another job. Anyone who goes along is at least as responsible as those who gave the order, since the order would achieve nothing it people didn’t follow it.
And there are few things that destroy respect for the law faster than automated enforcement of absolute laws.