Traffic Tickets Are Big Business

[jonnythan]

To throw my two cents in, I think anything that encourages MORE speeding tickets is a good thing.

The number of people killed in preventable automobile accidents every year is *staggering*. I don't care where the revenue from speeding tickets goes... but I do want to see MORE speeding tickets, not fewer.

Anything that makes our highways safer by penalizing those breaking traffic laws is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

[storysunfolding]

That's all well and good but one of my two tickets was my going 5 mph over the speed limit while following a police car. Why was I going 5 over because I fell into the rhythm during distance driving and trusted that the cop in front of me was going the right speed.

[camthepyro]

thought that this might be interesting to some of you....sorry for the long read but it explain alot...


Traffic tickets are a multi-billion industry. They have virtually

nothing to do with highway safety, but they have everything to do with money!

* Traffic tickets heavily fund most court systems.
* Traffic tickets justify the existence of entire police agencies like state highway patrols.
* Traffic tickets are often used to justify police department’s budget requests.
* Traffic tickets are used as an excuse to raise the insurance rates for otherwise safe drivers.
* Traffic tickets virtually fund numerous local governments.

When you begin to grasp the full magnitude of the public and private interests that depend on ripping off motorists through traffic tickets, you begin to understand why this unethical system continues to expand every year.

No one knows how many traffic tickets are actually issued. Many local units of government deliberately hide this information so they don't have to split their traffic ticket revenue with the state. Not including parking tickets (another scam), we can estimate that somewhere between 25 and 50 million traffic tickets are issued each year. Assuming an average ticket cost of $150.00, the total up front profit from tickets ranges from 3.75 to 7.5 billion dollars.

If just half of these tickets result in insurance surcharges (typically at least $300 over a period of three years), you can add another 3.75 to 7.5 billion dollars in profit for insurance companies. This is why insurance companies "care" so much traffic "safety" programs and are willing to donate millions of dollars worth of radar and laser guns to the police. (Click here to read more about "free" laser gun programs.) For them, it’s simple: more tickets equal more money!

Realistically, there is no connection between receiving an occasional traffic ticket and the likelihood of being in an accident. So, there is no justification for charging a person more for auto insurance because they were convicted for a random traffic violation. The purpose of insurance is to cover unusual risk. The act of exceeding an unreasonably low limit is hardly an "unusual risk." That means speeding ticket surcharges are pure profit for the insurance industry.

In total, we’re talking about 7.5 to 15 billion dollars annually from tickets for government agencies and insurance companies. That's more money than several states take in from all taxes! Worse still, that total doesn’t even include the money that "traffic schools," attorneys, radar-detector manufacturers, and scanner producers make.

To keep the money coming in those that benefit from traffic ticket revenue have to do several things:

1. Pass enough laws so that anybody can be stopped at anytime and be given a ticket for a traffic violation. Trivial or concocted traffic law violations are also frequently used as an excuse to stop, detain, and search persons for whom the police have no other legitimate reason to do so.
2. Blow out of proportion the effects of various traffic violations. They constantly talk about "carnage" on our roads, despite the fact that we have the lowest level of traffic fatalities in history.
3. Maintain a public relations campaign that claims traffic tickets are only given to bad drivers, and that these drivers should pay for the cost of enforcement. This is how you make it appear logical that the police and courts are funded through traffic ticket receipts.
4. Keep the ticket prices below the pain threshold that would compel motorists to aggressively contest traffic citations in court. They know that if fines got too high, motorist would fight heir tickets, and trials eat up all the profit.
5. Remove as many due process protections for traffic law offenders as is politically possible. This not only further discourages people from contesting their tickets, but it also ensures that those that do will have a much more difficult time defending themselves.

The police enforce laws that result in direct benefits to police agencies and personnel. Judges hear cases in which a "guilty" verdict would have tangible financially rewards for the court and courthouse personnel. No other class of "crime" is as profitable for state and local governments as is that of traffic tickets. Traffic courts cannot be fair and unbiased when their financial welfare depends on traffic fines. Additionally, local government encourage traffic enforcement practices that rip off travelers to support local government services and to reward government employees. Yet these hypocrisies go largely unnoticed.

A few simple changes can radically alter this unjust system:

1. No court or police department should directly benefit from the collection of traffic fines.
2. No police department should be permitted to rate its officers based on how many tickets they write.
3. No local government should retain traffic fines. The money collected in local courts should be transferred to the state and returned via a local aid formula based on population.

Until these changes are made, you should forget the general notion that traffic tickets are fair and traffic courts are just. The entire system focuses on maximizing income. That’s why most of the people who seriously contest a traffic ticket either win or are offered an good plea bargain. They don’t want anyone making waves – that would cost them money. That’s yet another good reason why you should fight your traffic ticket!

god you're dumb. I'm glad you can copy and paste something you probably didn't even completely read. First of all, less tickets means more taxes for everyone. Second, if you get tickets, you are, statistically very much more likely to get in an accident. Next time, look up some facts before you go copy paste an obviously biased editorial, with no real facts in it.

[Dirtytoes]

god you're dumb. I'm glad you can copy and paste something you probably didn't even completely read. First of all, less tickets means more taxes for everyone. Second, if you get tickets, you are, statistically very much more likely to get in an accident. Next time, look up some facts before you go copy paste an obviously biased editorial, with no real facts in it.

no, i think YOU'RE dumb....infact you are a complete IDIOT!

that goes for "some" other ppl that replied too..i'm not the one for talkin sh*t but sh*t like this kinda pis*es me off.

did ANY of you notice the FIRST line:

thought that this might be interesting to some of you....sorry for the long read but it explain alot...

that does not mean or explain:
1. that i agree with it
2. that i am the author
3. how i feel about it.

you might ask "what does it mean then"?
it means "here is something interesting to read if you're bored behind the computer. that's ALL it means.

so get your facts straight next time you decide to talk sh*t!

[storysunfolding]

Wow, the TMW rampage is spilling across threads.

Ok, got my handy dandy pipe wrench... BRING IT ON.

[SausageCreature]

1. No court or police department should directly benefit from the collection of traffic fines.

Doesn't this strike anybody as a good idea?

Jonnythan--you seem to equate and increase in speeding tickets issued with a decrease in traffic fatalities. In the studies I've read, driving over the speed limit was listed as a contributing cause less frequently than driver inattention. They could reduce traffic deaths by forcing everybody to drive the same speed, and penalizing those more than 5 over and under, as deviation from the average increases risk. And there's a thousand other factors, such as the presence of trees and ditches, that greatly increase fatalities.

If you're really worried about traffic deaths, you should be advocating the lowering of speed limits. After all, vehicle occupants rarely die in 30mph collisions, so why not enforce that as the national speed limit? There's no denying the rate of deaths would plummet.

[storysunfolding]

Moller sky car. Get those cars off the street and put them in the air. More room, computer controlled. Hell any idiot can have a computer controlled car take them someplace, especially one with so many redundancies.

[jonnythan]

If you're really worried about traffic deaths, you should be advocating the lowering of speed limits. After all, vehicle occupants rarely die in 30mph collisions, so why not enforce that as the national speed limit? There's no denying the rate of deaths would plummet.

That's not practical.

My opinion is that existing traffic laws are more than sufficient; however, enforcement of them is sparse and spotty. Much more rigid enforcement of existing laws would, IMO, reduce traffic fatalities significantly over the long run.,

[CNF2002]

Moller sky car. Get those cars off the street and put them in the air. More room, computer controlled. Hell any idiot can have a computer controlled car take them someplace, especially one with so many redundancies.

Great. Put a yuppy on a cellphone 300 feet in the air. That'll save lives.

[storysunfolding]

I may be off on my history, but weren't alot of traffic laws put into effect to keep cars running at a more efficient speed due to gas shortages?