State / City Government Hidden "Taxes" In Traffic Citations
I recently discovered just how “taxed” tickets and citations are. I knew that police departments needed revenue to exist, but didn’t realize how dependent government is on them. Government will encourage an increase in citations during times of economic roughness and will even up their fees to keep the state solvent.
I’m finding this all real interesting and having some fun digging stuff up and learning more about this concept. This post is going to be a “master post” or “sitemap” of sorts for this topic. I’m going to be linking to all my various points and examples from this post.
Posts On Government Hidden Fees In Citations
Legalizing Marijuana Could Reduce Cost of Traffic Violations – Think about it for a second: If number of citations and cost per citation is rising in order to make the state solvent, more revenue will counteract it. Legalizing marijuana would result in new tax-revenue while removing the cost of enforcing marijuana laws. This will have a positive impact on state economics, making government less dependant upon citing citizens for non-violent offenses.
How To Reduce Crime Through Reduced Government Spending – If government is broke, they want to make us all criminals. Not the criminals that require incarceration, but the criminals that can be exploited for revenue without having to pay for their incarceration. If there was a reduction of government spending on the state or local level, there would be a decreased need to fund themselves through citations. This would reduce the need to make everyone into a criminal.
Criminals Required For A Better Quality of Life – This is playing off police chief Kenneth Coye’s quote: “Tickets Are Necessary For Maintaining the Quality of Life”. If that’s the case, then criminals are necessary for quality of life. What kind of logic is that? Does that mean that more offenders would make for a better quality of life? Quick everybody! Start pissing in public and driving like a madman!
Ticket Quotas Target Innocent People, Not Criminals – If the police didn’t have ticket quotas, they’d just be doing their job. Ya know, going after criminals. When cops have standards they have to live up to, they’re looking for offenders instead of criminals. All of a sudden the person spitting in public is just as valuable as the drug dealer or violent offender. It’s all about the quotas, man!
Outrageous Traffic Tickets Is Bad For Road Maintenance – This might be a little hard to believe, but it’s true. High-dollar traffic citations are causing people to lose their license. When someone’s license is suspended, they’re not purchasing gas. This lowers the amount of “gas tax” revenue, which is the main source of funding for road maintenance.
Examples of Police Revenue-Generation:
Malden Mass Police Chief Coye: “Tickets Are Necessary For Maintaining Quality of Life” – Actual quote by a Mass. police chief. He encourages all his officers to write at least one traffic or parking citation a day and encourages enforcement in revenue zones. I bet you that Coye believes that we need more offenders to even better our quality of life.
Chesterfield County, VA Police Ticket “Quota Requirements” – This isn’t the state or city pressuring the police department to write more citation, unless that’s happening in the background, which it very well could be. But this is an example of how police are encouraged to go out and write citations, regardless of how many crimes actually occur.