Perhaps because it uses police for revenue collection rather than public safety. Last year the tiny town of Beverly Hills issued six traffic tickets and two ordinance violations for each resident. An investigation of the string of towns that includes Ferguson, Mo. finds heavy reliance on speed cameras and intensive traffic enforcement on sometimes-tiny stretches of road, oversized police forces, various anecdotes of assault and misconduct, and, in the case of the town of Edmundson, Mo., a memo from the mayor in April 2014 ordering the writing of more tickets. [Lisa Riordan Seville, NBC News; earlier]
4 Comments
A city of 834 that covers about a quarter of a square mile has 9 officers and wrote 4,784 traffic tickets plus 1,097 ordinance violations in 2013. (They have a 20 mph speed limit, and two traffic cameras.) So in 2014 the mayor then tells the police that they aren’t writing ENOUGH tickets, and says that if they don’t pick it up, he may not be able to continue to provide them with a safe and pleasant work place.
This is just wrong on so many levels.
Therein lies a problem. It’s all perfectly legal too. The mayor should suggest to the public that safety is of the utmost importance and 15 miles per hour would save just one person and be worth it. Bet it would save at least one job.
Pent up anger and distrust between the residents and the police? Lack of respect for those enforcing the regs? However did we get to this state?
[…] in Ferguson and St. Louis County [Julie Lurie and Katie Rose Quandt, Mother Jones; earlier here and here] St. Louis suburbs with now-familiar names agree to traffic-cam settlement […]