Traffic tickets are big business in Marion County
Ticket tallies tell it all
Staff reporter
Area law enforcement officials have different policies within their departments regarding the issuing of citations but all agree on the purpose — public safety.
Major highways running through city limits also is a factor in the number of tickets issued.
Information provided to the Marion County Record indicated from January to June, Florence issued 412 tickets, sheriff's department 280, Peabody 102, Hillsboro 43, and Marion nine.
The revenue generated by issuing citations is different from county to city jurisdictions.
All county fines and court costs are sent to the state and distributed to various state-based purposes such as law enforcement training academy. The county receives a low percentage in return.
By statute, cities are required to send $19.50 per ticket to the state. Of that, 50 cents goes to judicial education fund and $19 to law enforcement training academy. The remainder is retained by cities as a revenue stream.
Florence
Florence city officials have stepped-up patrolling of U.S.-77/50 highways after numerous fatalities from people running stop signs and speeding.
Florence Police Chief Erik King said citations are issued at the officer's discretion and public safety is the driving force.
"We patrol probably 60 percent on the highway and 40 percent in the city," King said.
His force of primarily part-time officers (five part-time officers, one part-time detective, and two reserve officers) also assist Marion County Sheriff's Department with calls.
"Once in a while we get calls in the county jurisdiction and are asked to participate and help them out until a deputy can get there," King said.
When asked about the number of citations issued so far this year, King was quick to point out that from January to the present time, there have been 320 warnings and 606 tickets issued, for a total of 926 traffic stops.
"We don't write citations for speeding unless they're going at least 10 miles over," King said, "because our radar could be off two or three miles per hour."
King also is proud of the fact there haven't been any serious accidents at the intersection since patrolling has been increased.
Marion County
Since the county or the sheriff's department does not receive a significant revenue from citations, the focus of the department is on public safety, investigations, and law enforcement instead of traffic.
Marion County Sheriff Lee Becker also leaves citations to the discretion of his deputies.
"I'm not here to give you a ticket," Becker explained. "I'm here to protect the general public. If a ticket is warranted, so be it."
He also emphasized that his department has many checks and balances for consistency.
Becker said issuing traffic citations is a small portion of the services his department provides to county residents.
"We're responsible for town patrols, investigations, and many other duties besides issuing tickets," he said.
Among them is to respond to all cities within the county when local law enforcement is not available or on duty. In return, city officers do the same.
Becker added that they could step-up traffic patrol in rural areas but funds are not available in his budget to do so.
Peabody
The site of numerous fatality accidents in recent years, Jeff Pohlman, Peabody Police Chief, said his department has jurisdiction to issue citations on a mile stretch on U.S.-50 from Nighthawk to Old Mill.
"With our hometown people pulling out on the highway on a regular basis, we do make special attempts to patrol that area," he said.
Otherwise, the department patrols and monitors activities in the heart of the city.
"We can get pretty busy within the city doing criminal investigations," Pohlman explained, "so time is a factor in patrolling the highway."
Pohlman said there is no set amount of warnings or tickets to be written by officers but believes in consistency.
"I encourage the officers to be consistent in their decision-making of what constitutes a warning and what constitutes a ticket."
The revenue stream is beneficial to the city, said Pohlman, "but I don't depend on it to pay the bills."
Hillsboro
"If an officer sees an offender, it's at the officer's discretion whether a citation is issued," said Dan Kinning, Hillsboro Police Chief, taking into consideration the time of day, amount of traffic, and other safety factors.
Hillsboro also has a highway near its city.
"The highway is outside our jurisdiction," Kinning said, "but we have an agreement with the sheriff's department that allows us to issue citations on the highway."
Kinning said his department also assists the sheriff's department with reckless drivers and DUI suspects on the highway and county roads.
As far as revenue for his department is concerned, Kinning said the revenue doesn't go to his budget but goes to the city's general fund. It's not a revenue stream he depend on.
Again, public safety is his department's focus, not necessarily issuing citations.
"If we see someone breaking the law, we're going to stop them."
Marion
Marion's revenue from traffic citations is dramatically less than any other municipality in the county.
Marion Police Chief Michel Soyez said his department is big on compliance.
"We give a lot of warnings," Soyez said. "A ticket is not always required to get people to comply."
Safety, of course, is the number one priority — particularly in school zones.
Ninety percent of accidents involve drivers who are juveniles or elderly, Soyez said.
"The reason to enforce traffic through warnings and citations is to reduce accidents and injuries," Soyez said.
Marion officers don't spend time patrolling U.S.-56 because it is not in the city limits. Besides, Soyez prefers his officers to attend to the residents.
"I prefer to have officers spending their time patrolling in town and taking care of residents," Soyez said.
