Cops = Income

by David C. Holzman

Published: April 2nd, 2009

Now we have the economic literature to confirm what we all know is happening: local governments using traffic citations to make up for revenue shortfalls. According to a paper in the February Journal of Law and Economics, published by the University of Chicago, “as the economy tanks, motorists may be more likely to see red and blue in the rearview.” Study authors Thomas Garrett, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and Gary Wagner from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, examined fourteen years of revenue and traffic citation data from counties in North Carolina. Revenues drop, traffic citations go up. Specifically, “a one percentage point decrease in last year’s local government revenue results in roughly a 0.32 percentage point increase in the number of traffic tickets the following year.”

Meanwhile, an article in Wall Street Journal says one can buy photoblocker spray ($29.99 a can) or a plastic shield that promises to render your license plates invisible to ticket cameras (c/o Phantom Plate Inc., of Harrisburg, PA.). Needless to say, California has already banned their use.

You can also take advantage of a free iPhone application on Trapster.com to mark speed traps and traffic cameras on a Google map.

David C. Holzman

I'm a freelance journalist covering science, medicine, and automobiles.

More by David C. Holzman

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4 of 32 comments

Mikeolan on Apr 03, 2009

@gogogodzilla I wasn't there, but I've had the same thing happen to me numerous times where I've been in the right hand lane and the left hand lane was empty and the cop still tailed me.

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GS650G on Apr 03, 2009

I've seen motorcycles in DC with the tags far up underneath the seat. Still visible from behind but not from the perch of a camera. Clever way to skirt the law. Once I saw one with a small light under the fender, the tag was right above the tire. This won't work for cars but unless they want to go to the trouble of legislating that tags have to be seen from 15 feet above the roadway I think it's a winner.

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Wsn on Apr 03, 2009
John Horner : April 2nd, 2009 at 12:32 pm “all ticket incomes go elsewhere, such as schools, so that police officers don’t benefit directly from the money” That is already how it is. The police department doesn’t get to keep the money collected from tickets, at least not in jurisdictions of any size. --------------------------------------------------- But they are both under the control of the same municipal government. So, there will be pressure from up there. My point was to give that money to someone totally unrelated. Maybe to the federal level to reduce Social Security Tax.

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KeithF on Apr 04, 2009

I don't see why everyone is so upset here... The innocent have nothing to fear. Right?

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