Subject: Towns supporting budgets thru speeding tickets

From: NMA <[email-masked]>
Date: 11 Sep 1995 22:09:13 GMT

Delaware towns strike it rich with speed traps.

It should not come as much of a surprise that some towns are using 
speeding tickets to boost revenue.  But there are some towns that should 
be given mention.

Drivers in Delaware are the latest victims in this crime against 
motorists.  Here's how some towns helped their budgets along with the 
town's size and number of cops on the force:

Harrington (pop. 2,300)      12 cops     $631,800
Greenwood (578)                5               $525,680
Newark (25,000)                 50             $463,350 (incl. criminal 
fines)
Wilmington (71,000)          229           $437,070
Dover  (27,600)                  79             $275,310
Newport (1,240)                 7               $265,270
Milford (6,000)                  25              $157,140
Elsmere  (5,900)                12              $153,950
Camden-Wyoming (2,900)  5              $134,975
South Bethany (148)          6                $126,100

So, avoid these towns.  Don't contribute to the local economy.

The town of Harrington has used this exploitative practice to fund it's 
new police department, to include bike patrols, a dispatch center and new 
cars.

Newport convinced the state legislature to enact a law to let them run 
speed traps on Delaware 141, which the state police patrolled up 'til 
then.  Rt 141 is a four-laner.  No doubt they were after the fine money. 

Six years ago, Frederica (pop 760) was going to lose it's fine money to 
the state because they were running speed traps on US 113, out of the 
town's jurisdiction.  So the town annexed land nearby.  Last year the 
Frederica PD with three full-timers and one part-timer raked in $115,100
in fines.

The police chief of Felton will lose his job if he doesn't write more 
tickets, sez the mayor.  The mayor has no problems supporting his town's 
budget thru speeding ticket fines.

-- 
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From: NMA <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 Sep 1995 18:01:31 GMT

Most cops don't make $50k a year; at least here in Madison WI (200,000) 
they make about $30-35k a year.  

It must make sense somewhere, because if the towns were breaking even or 
losing, they'd shed officers pretty quickly.  WHen you get right down to 
it, politicans will almost freely admit the reason they have low limits 
is so that they don't have to raise taxes.

-- 
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