The Demand for Money Behind Many Police Traffic Stops

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/31/us/police-ticket-quotas-money-funding.html

by _lz4k • 5 years ago

34 14 5 years ago

1cvmask• 5 years ago

This is the tip of the iceberg. How about we talk about outright authoritarian theft like civil forfeiture where they seize your assets and threaten you with fake charges if you plan to appeal it.

We would call this a fascist dictatorial authoritarian practice if it was in another country caught in the crosshairs of the empire:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2015/03/19/...

vanattab• 5 years ago

While I agree that civil forfeiture needs addressed, police theft is way worse in some places. I am currently staying in mexico city and last night I was eating dinner at a restaurant with the group I am traveling with and stepped away from my table to smoke a cigarette to avoid bothering the people around me. I had a beer my hand and was like 4ft outside of the dining area where my group was sitted eating and drinking. A cop approached me and demanded to take me to the police station for open container, unless of course I paid a him 2,000 peso. Never even bothered to ask for my id.

jazzyjackson• 5 years ago

what’s your id got to do with breaking open container laws? having a steep fine for breaking the rules is not on the same level of theft as confiscating cash on the mere suspicion of breaking the rules

throwaway815232• 5 years ago

One obvious fix might be require all revenue from traffic fines etc. to be paid into the state general fund rather than to the agencies that write the tickets.

eurasiantiger• 5 years ago

That would lead to the income stream becoming a permanent fixture in budgets and thus an implicit state-sanctioned traffic stop robbery quota would be enacted.

mofosyne• 5 years ago

How about the money gets paid back to taxpayers as a seperate line item as a dividend.

E.g. everyone get $10 dollars from fine profits

throwaway815232• 5 years ago

Yeah there would have to be some kind of firewall to prevent the collected funds from making their way back to the police departments, as opposed to sending annual grants based on population etc. that were completely independent of collected fines.

dusted• 5 years ago

The better obvious fix is to burn the money, this helps fight inflation, removes unintended incentives to collect fines while preserving the intended incentive to avoid getting fined.

burgerzzz• 5 years ago

If you've ever been to a municipal court for a traffic ticket (I've noticed this even in smaller town of the US) you'll find a courtroom packed full of people (more than not lower income folks) and a judge who rattles off fines like an auctioneer ($50... $130 for you... $90... $250...). It's clearly a huge money maker for the local government.

The Demand for Money Behind Many Police Traffic Stops

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