It’s heard in bars, coffee shops, restaurants and coffee
houses.
”
The police should concentrate on solving real crimes instead of
pulling me over for speeding.
”
Stop complaining about police issuing citations
It’s heard in bars, coffee shops, restaurants and coffee houses. “The police should concentrate on solving real crimes instead of pulling me over for speeding.” Or, “Why do police waste time at DUI checkpoints looking for drunks when they could be catching real criminals?” Or, best of all, “If police just put an officer at the mid-block cross walk on Edmundson they’d make a ton of money.” The problem is, that thinking is both wrong, shortsighted and writing traffic tickets is part of what we pay police to do.
City gets very little money from each traffic citation
It’s wrong in that the city gets very little money from traffic tickets. According to Marvin Bell from the Superior Court, revenue from a standard ticket is dispersed accordingly: After an initial 2 percent assessment, the county receives 11 percent of the base fine and the local jurisdiction receives 89 percent. But that is 89 percent of the base fine. In addition to that fine, there are penalties and fees that can add up to 280 percent of the base fine and the fees are another $76. Therefore a violation with a $100 base fine actually costs the violator $456 plus costs for traffic court; however, out of the $456, the local jurisdiction receives $87.22 or about 19 percent of the sum of fines, penalties, and fees.
Seemingly minor traffic stops can lead to the arrest of criminals
Complaining about the police doing their job is shortsighted. Very often, when police pull over a driver for a traffic violation, be it for an expired registration or speeding, they find evidence of other crimes. Check the crime stories. Police pull over a vehicle for some violation or other, and inside they find drugs, weapons or someone on probation or with an outstanding warrant. Who knows how many crimes are prevented from those seemingly minor traffic stops?
The bottom line is, we pay police to protect us, and one of the ways they do that is by keeping the streets safe. Don’t break the law and you won’t get a ticket. And if you do, there’s always traffic court.
