“We don’t need to be raked over the coals for being a speed trap.”
Jason Raucstadt, Mayor of Seligman, Missouri
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Photo by Ildar Sagdejev |
Ticket More
A detour on Interstate 29 caused by the Missouri River flooding between Nebraska and Iowa this last summer is channeling traffic from eastern Nebraska through small towns in Iowa, and along with it revenue from traffic tickets. The biggest “winner” in the traffic ticket lottery, Tabor, Iowa (population 908), isn’t even on the detour, but drivers quickly figured out a that a shortcut through the small town shaved miles off their trips. The main concern in Tabor is safety—that’s why the town added two stop signs and three part-time officers to slow down traffic—but town leaders can’t help but notice the spike in revenue from the fivefold increase in traffic citations. Police in Tabor normally write fewer than 50 tickets a year, but in July alone they wrote over 100 tickets. And at more than $100 a pop, that’s no small change for Tabor.
Ticket Less
Like a lot of government offices across the country, the police department in Seligman, Missouri (population 997) is struggling with a dwindling budget, down almost $7,500 in August. But writing more traffic tickets is not the way this department is going to dig out of its debt. The mayor and Board of Alderman called the police chief in for a dressing down last month following accusations that the police department was writing too many tickets. When it was all over, the mayor fired the police chief. In protest, the town’s two remaining part-time officers quit. The town has already appointed a replacement chief, who will be working alone with little time to write tickets.
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