The Demand for Money Behind Many Police Traffic Stops

[Zorro]

Busted taillights, missing plates, tinted windows: Across the U.S., ticket revenue funds towns — and the police responsible for finding violations.

Harold Brown’s contribution to the local treasury began as so many others have in Valley Brook, Okla.: A police officer saw that the light above his license plate was out.

“You pulled me over for that? Come on, man,” said Mr. Brown, a security guard headed home from work at 1:30 a.m. Expressing his annoyance was all it took. The officer yelled at Mr. Brown, ordered him out of the car and threw him to the pavement.

After a trip to jail that night in 2018, hands cuffed and blood running down his face onto his uniform, Mr. Brown eventually arrived at the crux of the matter: Valley Brook wanted $800 in fines and fees. It was a fraction of the roughly $1 million that the town of about 870 people collects each year from traffic cases.

A hidden scaffolding of financial incentives underpins the policing of motorists in the United States, encouraging some communities to essentially repurpose armed officers as revenue agents searching for infractions largely unrelated to public safety. As a result, driving is one of the most common daily routines during which people have been shot, Tased, beaten or arrested after minor offenses.

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

Tucson, Arizona isn't on the map, but it should be. They have more cops per mile on I-10 than anywhere else I've seen, so drivers beware.

[Demovictory9]

1. Excellent. Article

Blood sucking small towns

[calimary]

2. Gives a whole new meaning to "highway robbery," doesn't it.

[mopinko]

3. comes out to $1,149 per person.

[zipplewrath]

4. Mobile random Tax Collectors

There have been infamous towns that would fund themselves on speed traps on country roads. The speed limit would drop by 30 mph at the edge of town on some otherwise state or county road, and a cop sitting right there. Of course residents/locals would be given warning tickets. But everyone else would get a ticket. Alot of states have changed laws on how quickly the speed limit can drop to fight this a little bit.

[padfun]

5. I-10 Tucson area has been a hotbed for cops for 50 years now.

It is in a major pathway for drug smuggling.

I grew up in that area. And because you are close to the border, and there is a fairly heavy military presence with Davis Monthan and Ft Huachuca, there is just a lot of cops there. I saw the usual local Police, Sheriff, DPS, Border patrol, DEA, Customs and maybe some other 3 letter bureau's from the feds. It seems like there is some LEO for every three people there.

And that was 50 years ago.

[shrike3]

6. I've heard of cops around here shaking motorists down for cash.

Fork over your money and I'll let you go.

[ChazInAz]

7. Marana, Arizona is a fine example, too.

My wife and I had just been given a truck by a friend from Marana. (Due to my spouse's many months in the hospital with the disease that would eventually kill her, we were in financial straits and he helped us out.) We took him back to his Marana home from Tucson in our new-to-us truck on July 4 of 2009, dropped him off and headed back. Patty had left the registration documents on our desk at home, where we had been working on them. As we prepared to take the exit onto I-10, a Marana cop pulled us over. Big, over-muscled, red-faced and sweaty, the dude came up to the back of our truck and without a word ripped the license plate from the back. I made the mistake of sticking my head out the window and asking what he was doing. That was not smart. Raging, he came tearing around the front after giving the wheelchair and walker in the back a good looking over. He had his hand on both the Tazer and pistol, holstered right next to each other. Leaned into the cab and proceeded to scream at both of us about the expired license plate, demanding proof of ownership, insurance cards (All in Tucson, at the moment.). Then threatening to drag us both out onto the ground, handcuffed and beaten, then dragged off to jail. Patty was in hysterics by this time, and I was considering the odds of taking off to escape the guy who was obviously a 'Roid Monster.
Eventually, after a long period of threats and sweaty screaming, he wrote me a hefty ticket. His handwriting was so bad that I couldn't decipher his name. I got Patty home and calmed down, then called Marana's cop shop. After informing them of the obviously coked-up 'Roid Rager on their force, I informed them that if they wanted me to show up in court to pay the fine, they'd better be able to defend themselves.
Apparently, charges were dropped, and I never heard from them again. I also never went to Marana again.

[Aristus]

8. Ever-increasing sales tax percentages and cops shaking down people for cash

are the inevitable result of the opposition in so many states to a state income tax. States, counties and municipalities need money for infrastructure maintenance, but since "income taxes" are the dirtiest words in the American lexicon, we've become accustomed to thinking that huge sales taxes and highway robbery by the highway patrol are suitable substitutes.

[FoxNewsSucks]

9. Most cops are, and pretty much the entire purpose of a Highway Patrol

is, little more than armed tax collectors.

It was bad enough when they stuck to fleecing motorists, but the militant pigs these days are quick to escalate.

Valley Brook shouldn't even be a separate town. There are other speed-trap type "suburbs" in OKC, but that's the first time I ever heard of this one.

Everyone should install and use Waze. Meanwhile, instead of getting distracted morons obstructing traffic and causing accidents off the road, these cops are focused on money.

[Simeon Salus]

10. Valley Brook is a tiny exclave of OKC on SE 59th Street

Less than a square mile. Eight police units. Strip clubs, fireworks stands. Somebody's legal fiefdom. 67% of the town's revenue comes from fines and fees.

https://www.speedtrap.org/oklahoma/valley-brook/

https://kfor.com/news/local/valley-brook-and-its-officials-sued-accused-in-unconstitutional-debt-collection-scheme-from-poor-residents/

https://www.oklahoman.com/article/5662599/valley-brook-loses-court-fight-over-traffic-stops