There’s an interesting article in the latest Car and Driver Magazine about the economic slow-down’s effect on speeding tickets. Many cities that are feeling the crunch and are experiencing budget problems “look to their Police Departments as a way to cash in.” As a result ticketing has gone way up.
In the Detriot area, where C&D has its headquarters, “the number of moving violations issued has increased by at least 50% in 18 communities…since 2002–and 11 of those municipalities have seen ticketing increases of 90% or more.” SO watch out you motorists out there especially those of you who live in Michigan. A ticket for driving 5 miles over the speed limit in Dearborn Heights will cost you $90 and give you two points on your license!
The interesting thing about all of this is that many local governments depend on the revenues they get from people speeding. When they need more money they look to the police. This has changed the nature of your local police station from primarily being there to enforce traffic laws in order to protect you to enforcing laws in order to make money. James Tagnanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan union, says, “A lot of police chiefs will tell you the goal is to have nobody speeding through their community, but heaven forbid if it should actually happen – they’d be out of money.”
“Police Chief Michael Reaves of Utica, Michigan, says the role of law enforcement has changed over the years. ‘When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement, but if you’re a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues,’ he says. ‘That’s just the reality nowadays.'”
I think this is very ironic. The police and the government have built their budgets around the fact that we do not and will not obey the speed laws. They not only expect us to break the law, they need us to break the law. I thought it was interesting that even though the law is intended to curb behavior, it does not, and because of that the intention has changed to now actually count on people breaking it.
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3 responses to “"I Feel the Need…the Need for Speed!"”
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Loved this, Sean. It’s entirely true. And interestingly not limited to traffic tickets.
Many local city governments rely on revenue from “crimes” committed and dealt with by levying fines. I use the inverted commas because sometimes the charge that is finally agreed on is utterly fictitious — literally it did not happen and everyone (judge, policeman, DA, etc.) knows it did not happen but its far cheaper for the fellow charged to pay a fine then hire an expensive lawyer and contest it.
Fortunately, not all local governments fund themselves this way. The correct solution would be for all fines generated to be distributed to a a group of well established legitimate charities. When they don’t, they risk the confusing double disaster of needing to encourage lawbreaking and also needing to impose frivolous punitive measure on a public they exist to protect.
I completely agree John! My wife, Kate, actually suggested the same solution. The money should ego to charities or non-profits named after birds;)
We like non profits named after birds.
The little kingdom in which Mary and I live is all about raising revenues through speeding tickets. (I got a ticket, literally, because of running too fast by a speed-camera recently. How could I possibly have run that fast? Sort of made one feel good.) The ticket revenues go to new village cable lines.
That is exactly how the Law works — an end in itself.
Go back to Jonathan Wong’s recent citation from Luther. The Reformer understood this principle with unique power.