Georgia City Rakes In $1,136 In Traffic Ticket Fines Per Resident
According to the Athens Banner-Herald, the city of Pendergrass, Georgia took in about $558,020 in fines in 2006 – enough to pay the police department’s $312,636 budget in 2006 and then some. That’s quite a profit for any town, but it’s even more amazing when you consider that Pendergrass only has 491 residents. If you do the math that’s a bill of $1,136 per resident! That figure is by far the biggest in the state.
Either people spontaneously become much more dangerous drivers on Pendergrass’s one-mile stretch of highway or the city is trying to pad its budget by ticketing as many drivers as possible. The city can claim that it’s all about safety, but the numbers just don’t add up. Pendergrass takes in nearly five-times the revenue per resident collected by the town with the next highest police-revenue-per-resident numbers.
So why don’t the residents revolt? The answer is simple. They’re not the people getting the tickets. Because they live in the town and know the areas where the police carry out their strict enforcement, they’re largely immune to the fines being given out and receive the benefit of an increased town budget at no cost to them.
Unfortunately, out-of-state drivers and people unfamiliar with the area don’t have that luxury and find themselves paying for additional Pendergrass police resources. More police resources means more tickets. And more tickets means more revenue for the city. It’s a vicious cycle that can only be stopped through speed trap legislation.
If you’re a Georgia resident, contact your legislators and let them know that it’s not right to value revenue over safety.
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[...] Ga. (population 491), raked in over $558,000 in traffic fines in 2006 by whacking out-of-state drivers in a speed trap. This has [...]
An entity that has a police department and only 491 residents would need a revenue source to pay the budget of the police department. I am assuming that the citations issued for violations of law were only to drivers who actually violated the respective section of law. The reason that the residents don’t revolt is because it is non residents who are being issue citations. The non residents who feel that they don’t need to obey the traffic regulations of some back woods little town with a population of only 491. Since the fines are collected from non residents the residents are happy because thier land taxes and sales taxes didn’t need to increase to cover the cost of the police departments budget.
I am surprised at this author’s assertions that traffic law violations and citations only lead to more traffic enforcement to build more revenue and that this is a cycle that can only be broken by anti-speed trap legislation. First off the $558,020 in fines is revenue from all traffic violations not just speeding. Secondly there is a much simpler way to combat the “speed trap” mentality. All a motorist needs to do is comply with the speed laws and other traffic laws in this town and viola revenue stream disappears and if the authors assertion that ticket revenue is the only support for the police department was correct the police department will disappear also. I somehow think that the police department will be funded whether that $558,020 in fines exists or not. I really can’t believe so many seemingly intelligent people buy into this classic example of NMA propaganda.
This is clearly a blatent attempt by the NMA to propose anti- speed trap legislation that it has drafted but can’t get support for. As I pointed out if a driver is as attentive as he should be while driving he will be aware of speed limit drops and if he is worried about being cited he will reduce his speed. I have no sympathy for a driver who passes a 30mph, 40mph, 50mph, 55mph sign and continues to proceed through the town at 70mph simply because he has been brain-washed by the NMA and feels entitled to be able to travel at that speed through town. Get a clue if it says 40mph then slow down to 40mph, I doubt you’ll get a citation for exceeding 40mph limit if you are doing 40mph.
Why do we need special legislation when all that is really needed is compliance to the law?
I received a citation in the City of Morrow for a late car tag. (13 days after my birthday) $192. I will think twice before entering that city to shop again.
I just got sacked with a $322.00 traffic ticket for speeding in a construction zone. I’m fed up. Is there any organization fighting this outrage?
I went through stringtown, ok last year and theres a casino there on right where the officer was…needless to say i was pulled over, i had three beers that i drank in the car and my child with me. idiot i know. but what gave him the right to pull me over? and why did put in the report that he saw me swerve across the center line and he had to make a uturn? anyway, the officer said that i smelled of beer, i offered to take a breath test, he told me it was broken? anyone ever hear of that, he told me i had to take a blood test which i refused to the first time because of my fear of needles. then told him i would, he then said to late, brought the drug dogs, cuffed and stuffed me. and i was put in the tank for 15 hours…sometime in the middle of night he came in and wanted me to sign something. now i know it was videotaped, but my lawyer advised to plead deferred judgement and pay the 3000 plus in fines. if i had the resources i know that i could have won the case and the officer would surely of been suspended. so when your going through stringtown going back to dallas, be careful for this awfully corrupt system…by the way the judge i had appeared to have some mental dementia because during the trial he couldnt remember my name, case, things like that. so good luck everyone if you ever go through atoka co!
Its true! In Europe the government is way more law-abiding, less crime everywhere. The police there are not really the enemy, just civil servants and countrymen like everyone else.
Those “LEO” had a great suggestion- Abolish the Police. I vote yea 10x over.
See, they’re not so dumb after all…
Uggh
I do not believe this
Interesting post from Germany, here in US It’s absolute 0 tolerance traffic laws. 1 mph over and your a criminal. No regard to possible speedometer error, instrument calibration deviations, or human error. Come on what do police terrorizing citizens really want from us? can’t be for safety, that’s paying attention to the road and just may range in or out of speed limit or have your head down checking and maintaining a speed limit and that’s not safe driving. I love those 25 mph limits in town 2 lane roads that are as wide as the autobahn, speed trap ville an pure harassment of law abiding citizens.
Chief:
Why is it that law enforsment can run up and down the road as fast as they like and no one can do anything about it?
I have seen a Sheriff car run 90mph down the interstate. I know this becaus I paced him all the way to the office. He was in plain cloths and took his time getting out of the car. Now some would say the he may have been on duty at the time . If this is true then why did he have to go so fast to get home. You see he past me on my way home and he lives about two miles from my house. He was home before I was and he was home all evening.
Don’t get me worng I know that things are hard on our men and women in uniform. They don’t get the the respect they should. But that does not give them the right to put my life and others in harms way just so they can get home or where ever they maybe going.
If it is an emergency turn on your light so we will know.
I live in Germany. I found this article quite surprising and would call such practice corruption indeed.
Not that we don’t have speed traps in Germany, but politicians and local administration know quite well how to keep speed trapping acceptable.
It would be a big topic at the next election if methods were as harsh and fines as high as described in the article and discussed in this forum.
Sometimes our secretary of traffic talks about rising the fines, but this is usually about fines for capital offences, extreme speeding, drunken drivers, and the like.
A number of speed traps we have here are fixed automatic installations. Offenders may require to see the photo.
These speed traps are commonly known, but people keep getting trapped by them … now, that’s their own fault.
If police officers operate speed trap equipment they have to be trained to do so in order to avoid false measurements and possible subsequent court action.
The speed trap devices have to be exact and checked regularly. Despite this, 3 kilometers/hour (~2 m.p.h) are subtracted from any result – the authorities here want to avoid every doubt about it from the start.
Police cars following speeding offenders have to follow them for serveral hundred meters at least, the police car’s speedometer has to be an approved one and two officers have to report the offender. Despite this, 20 percent of the speed taken have to be subtracted (probably with the exception of video cars).
And usually, they don’t issue fines if the speed limit has not been exceeded clearly, i.e by 5 m.p.h. or so.
It’s pretty usual on our roads that our speedometers show “60″ while the limit is indeed 50 kilometers/hour (31 mph) inside towns and cities.
We know the speedometer to be a bit optimistic about the true speed and the police ignoring a minimal excess.
Drive, say, 65 (~40 mph) in a speed trap and be sure to have your ticket – and that’s alright.
The lowest speed limits we got are 30 km/h (19 mph). Just be a bit more careful there.
Altogether, if a driver gets a ticket for speeding in Germany, he *definitely* was too fast.
Cases where device were working inexactly or police officers did not operate them as intended are rare and are usually overturned in court (we had a laugh here a number of years back with unexact devices tracking trucks at 250 m.p.h or so …:=)
Of course, local politicians always count a certain amount of fines to add to the budget every year. But they still know that they must keep police action acceptable and not overtighten the nut.
At last, it’s also better for the police’s reputation to keep speed trapping reasonable.
Now, our police’s reputation is good…
Greetings from Germany
“elwood”
I just want to say dont speed through the city of morrow. The blue Morrow Police Heat cars or always pulling someone over. They have gave me 2 tickets already. I learned my lesson and drive under the speed limit in Morrow.