Travelers can find scenic views in Georgetown, Louisiana. But if they stop for a visit, they have limited opportunities to spend money. The village has one gas station and variety store, along with a few other businesses.
That is not much of a tax base. But the tiny community, with its population of 275 residents, has two additional moneymakers: a courthouse and a mile-long stretch of U.S. Route 165 that cuts diagonally through the village. Officers wait at the bottom of a highway overpass, clock vehicles as they come over the crest, and issue as many citations as possible.
HOUSE INVESTIGATION INTO MILITARY’S AFGHAN WITHDRAWAL QUIETLY MAKES INROADS
The operation generated
$532,000
in 2022, covering more than 80% of the municipal budget. The rate topped
93%
in 2021.
Other towns and villages show more restraint. Missouri caps revenue from fines and fees at 20% of municipal budgets — a 2015
reform
following the uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri. Law enforcement observers elsewhere consider anything above
10%
excessive. Yet many communities blow past these limits like drivers addicted to speed.
Valley Brook
, Oklahoma, covers 65% of its annual budget from fines and fees.
Eastville
, Virginia, has hit 70%.
Buckholts
, Texas, has hit 73%. And
Peninsula
, Ohio, which launched a handheld photo radar program in April 2023, could soon approach 100%.
A 2021 New York Times
report
identifies more than 730 municipalities nationwide that generate at least 10% of their revenue from fines and fees. The result is “
taxation by citation
,” which occurs when governments use police power to raise revenue.
Weaponizing traffic laws is just one way to do this. Code inspectors also get involved.
Homeowner Hilda Brucker was fined and sentenced to criminal probation because she had a
cracked driveway
in Doraville, Georgia. Her neighbor, Jeff Thornton, was ticketed for having a small, stacked woodpile in his backyard. A 2015 Doraville newsletter brags that the city averages nearly 15,000 cases and brings in more than $3 million annually through its court system, which “contributes heavily to the city’s bottom line.”
Many municipalities include fines and fees projections in their budgets, creating urgency to issue citations. This bias toward prosecution violates the Constitution. Under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, people caught in the legal system have a right to interact with impartial decision-makers — not officers who see every motorist and homeowner as a potential ATM. This is why Lady Justice wears a blindfold.
But far too often, courts overlook the abuse if law enforcers do not receive a direct cut per ticket like salespeople paid on commission. Yet a flat wage or salary hardly matters if jobs disappear without citation revenue. Raises, overtime pay, equipment upgrades, and other perks are also on the line, which can skew law enforcement judgment.
These incentives create carrots. But pressure can also come from sticks.
Officers who fail to deliver results in high-pressure “sales” environments can face punishment. One police chief says he was
fired
for not writing enough tickets in Mantua, Utah. An officer made similar
allegations
in Alpharetta, Georgia. And four former police officers blew the whistle on an illegal
quota system
in Gretna, Louisiana.
“Taxation by citation” backfires in at least three ways. Communities that become reliant on fines and fees solve violent and property crimes at significantly
lower rates
as focus shifts to moneymaking activities. An increase in traffic stops also puts officers and motorists in
danger
. And
research
from our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, finds lower levels of trust in government officials and institutions in communities focused on fines and fees.
Despite the high stakes, policymakers rarely intervene. Capping fines and fees at a certain percentage of the municipal budget is one solution, which is the approach Missouri took. Another solution is to remove the perverse incentives altogether by directing revenue away from the people holding the speed guns and code enforcement clipboards.
North Carolina enshrines this safeguard in its state constitution. Traffic enforcement proceeds, along with other fines and fees, go to
public schools
. Law enforcement agencies that claim to care about safety — not money — can write as many tickets as they want. But they cannot cash in.
This should be the model for all states. Lawmakers should incentivize agencies to serve and protect — not to ticket to collect.
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Anthony Sanders is the director of the Center for Judicial Engagement at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va., and Daryl James is an Institute for Justice writer.
