Jan 13th 2009 By Jeremy Taylor

Recession Will Result in More Traffic Tickets

(Our happy hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.)

Local governments use traffic citations to make up for revenue shortfalls.

Researchers examined 14 years of data from 96 North Carolina counties and found that for every one percentage point decrease in local government revenue, there is a .32 percent increase in tickets issued the next year.

While that number might seem small, it is statistically significant. "There is ample anecdotal evidence that local governments use traffic tickets as a means of generating revenue," the study's authors write. "Our paper provides the first empirical evidence to support this view."

To those who grew up watching Hazzard County commissioner Boss Hogg operate, these findings come as no surprise.

Far be it from us to point out the obvious, but if you don't pay your parking tickets you might go to jail. We wonder if any of these ladies forgot to pay the meter maid?

Hottie Mugshots

This photo provided by Val Verde, Texas, County Sheriff's Office shows one-time NFL cheerleader and reality TV bride-to-be Mary Delgado who is out of jail after being arrested in a Del Rio, Texas, bar, Sunday, Nov 16, 2008. Delgado, who accepted a televised proposal from "The Bachelor," or professional bass fisherman Byron Velvick, in 2004, was arrested in Del Rio early Sunday after refusing to leave a local bar. She was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, public intoxication, and resisting arrest and released about an hour later.

Val Verde County Sheriff's Office / AP

Before they were famous, Hugh Hefner's new twin girlfriends Karissa and Kristina Shannon, 19, were arrested in 2007 after a bar fight. Double your pleasure, double your felony aggravated battery.

She really has that "girl next cell" quality, don't you think?

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Hey baby, why the long face?

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So sultry. She must've been booked for a crime of passion.

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We know this type. Crazy and crazy in bed. You want to break up with her, but you're afraid of her reaction. We don't blame you.

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If you want to impress the jury it helps to button up your housecoat.

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Is it us, or does she look like Eva Longoria's naughty little sister? Score!

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Hello, kitty! Bringing cute back to the booking room.

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A former child beauty pageant star, Karen still loved having her picture made, regardless of where it was.

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Click here to have Happy Hour Hero delivered to your desktop every pour time.

Tags: government - revenue - speeding ticket - speeding tickets - SpeedingTicket - SpeedingTickets

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Thursday 15 January

By richard

Neutral

Imagine that more money for the little money hungry towns so there pee-on politicians can live better lives. Our cities,counties and states are corrupt enough.

Thursday 15 January

By natman

Neutral

Just don't speed past the donut shop and you will be okay!!!

Thursday 15 January

By steve

Neutral

Good. . .I hope the ticket the hell out of everybody going over the speed limit. They don't even have to go anywhere, just write a book right were they're standing.

Thursday 15 January

By larry

Neutral

Only stupid people pay tickets, smart people pay lawyers and courts don't get a dime from smart people. You will also maintain a clean driving record and save money on insurance.

Thursday 15 January

By Lon Horiuchi V

Neutral

I left behind a family full of badges, which have since added one gavel. Spent much time observing their coworkers over years past, both on and off the clock. They aren't who they claim. They're RICO criminals. Frauds behind a facade. Self-righteous, judgemental, egomaniacal, vain, contemptuous, violent, hateful, power hungry, control freak, narcissistic vocational supremacists and elitist, social separatists. They cover up for "their own" but seek the public square of humiliation for normal people within their corrupt, cancerous reach. They refer to Citizens as "civilians". They refer to Peace Officers as "Law Enforcement" because they lust for power and violence, and "Peace Officer" sounds friendly, approachable and white collar. They dress themselves and their cars so gaudily that it'd embarass even a Cub Scout in uniform. "Everybody look at ME". Jackbooted RICO thugs in Nazi-Ninja garb and armored assault vehicles with "Rescue" painted on the side instead of "Citizen Attack and Assault".
We, The People, own the country. Government parasites don't. We can exist without them. They can't exist without us to parasite off of.
We, The People, have a Constitutional mandate in the preamble to "alter or abolish" bad government that turns on us. It's LEGAL to do so. Civil wars are LEGAL. No minimum # of participants or approval of bureaucrats required.
Notice also that the preamble "is very clear" (as the pigs like to say) that we're a u.S., not a U.S. It's again spelled out in the 10th amendment (it's very clear, as they like to say).
Had enough? What are you waiting for?
Check with your Fish & Game mere public servants to learn whether shotguns are allowed for wild pig hunting in your preferred area of operations. If so, go wild pig hunting, and when you come across them, give them a 12 gauge facial. It's great recreation. Quite liberating!
But back to the topic. Drive so as to not allow these parasitic, opportunistic "Highwaymen" to "use" (as they like to say) any codes, etc, to get into your private travels or personal business. It'll bankrupt them in no time. Problem solved!

Thursday 15 January

By dave

Neutral

the down side to this story will be the increase of police fatilities due to their increase of confrontations with the public.

Thursday 15 January

By bill

Neutral

GREAT theIR are enough crooked cops now give them more leave-way they dont have to show you the so called radar and who do you think the judge believes trust me its not the one that gets the tickets

Thursday 15 January

By USATE

Neutral

THIS SHOW'S ME HOW PHONY, HYPOCRITICAL AMERICA REALY IS. It has NEVER been about safety, it's all about MONEY AND GREED.
TIME to move out of this corrupted country.

Thursday 15 January

By GAIL

Neutral

THE COPS DON'T MAKE THE LAWS SILLY PEOPLE, THEY HAVE TO ENFORCE IT BECAUSE IT IS THERE JOB....AND BESIDES YOU SHOULDN'T BE DRIVING OVER THE SPEED LIMIT ANYWAY...IT COMES DOWN TO WHERE PEOPLE DON'T LIKE OTHERS HAVING AUTHORITY...TOUGH SHIT!! BREAK THE LAW YOU PAY!

Sunday 25 January

By chris

Neutral

you really are dumb. thats the same excuse nazi soilders used @ their war crimes hearings. they said they were just obeying orders. and what was the response from that...."no excuse"... just because some tyrants who claim 2 be elected deceided with a bunch of morons that this is so....doesnt make it right. u really must be scared of true liberty...where police dont act like the worlds savior. speeding tickets are more than a $6 billion dollar industry. this is 1 reason i did not become a cop. secondly... if a cop gets pulled over by another cop... does that cop get ticketed....obviously no. so those who dont know equal justice shouldnt be in the business of enforcement. just more stupid words from brainwashed citizens. you would do better living in africa...where its the law of the jungle.

Thursday 15 January

By poster

Neutral

YES USATE....

get used to it that america is phony and corrupted. Always was .... and always will be.
Hypocrites of the WORLD.

Thursday 15 January

By GAIL

Neutral

HEY GUESS WHAT, IF YOU DON'T BREAK THE LAW YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY YOU SILLY ASSES...GROW UP AND BE RESPONSIBLE, THIS GIVING TICKETS ONLY APPLY TO THE GUILTY ONES THAT DON'T ABIDE BY THE LAW............

Thursday 15 January

By asters

Neutral

So it was never for the safety of the public.
it has always been about MONEY and raking it in.
sick society

Thursday 15 January

By werst

Neutral

To " SERVE and PROTECT"...
I have a bridge to sell you in Antartica.
what a money grubbing country we are, sickning.
TIME TO MOVE.

Thursday 15 January

By Chris

Neutral

Cops are just legal crooks. I have no use whatso ever for any local boyscouts. The Sherrifs do care and help.
The CHP and the local dipsticks are useless. I say we take back our streets from these and other thugs.

Thursday 15 January

By tom

Neutral

the law is one sided mich is taking half of my disiabilty check for child support and i tried for years for a dna test and they would not give one so the law is not fair

Thursday 15 January

By sandy

Neutral

INHERENTLY WRONG!!! Talk about a CONFLICT of interest!! The revenue should go SOMEPLACE else. If police need $$, FIND a different source.... GOOD Grief!!

Thursday 15 January

By johndunc

Neutral

I wish it was all about public safety, but it's not. Next to property taxes,traffic fines are the next largest source of revenue for most cities. In the Dallas area,according to a recent study,380,ooo traffic citations were issued in 2008;and that's just the city policemen.We also have the county precints and their "constables" whose primary duties are to write traffic citations.Let's not forget the sheriffs department and the state highway patrolmen. It's almost like they are competing to see who can get th most and they are extremely aggressive and devious with their methods.By the way, there is no such thing as a cheap ticket anymore. It is extremely expensive to get a ticket for almost anything in the Dallas area. They know that most people are simply going to pay so they are not really geared up to allow jury trials for traffic citations.If you request a jury trial in the Dallas municipal courts for a traffic citation you are a major pain in the rear for them and they treat you as such. It disrupts the flow of things as far as them getting their dockets cleared. Believe me they do not like that.If you go to court for a traffic citation,some will be thrown out. You see, they have so many they cannot process everybody.It would clog up their system and make a real mess.Of course,now they are trying to develop a system in which nobody slips through the cracks-they want it all.If you are not one of the lucky ones whose ticket is thrown out,you are basically given two options;plead guilty,or no contest. Either way you owe them money. They could care less about your guilt or innocence,or extenuating circumstances. They don't even want to hear it.They are trying to clear that docket before the next group comes in.

By the way :you see a lot more cops writing tickets in poor and middle class neighborhoods than in the more affluent areas.These are the people that are more than likely just going to pay the ticket as opposed to having an attorney handle it. They know where to get their money.

They have so many cops writing tickets that I wonder who is after the real bad guys. I think NOBODY.

Thursday 15 January

By mark

Neutral

The cops in Tucson AZ always have some kind of huge scandal come up about every 5 years or so. Tucson Police Dept are truly worthless, sorry, out of shape, fat, arrogant rude asses....and that's the nice part about them. And whenever you see them driving, they're using a hand held cell phone. Great examples they are to people everywhere. They drive however they like, they rarely use turn signals. I could go on and on... and it's so sad, because we, the average law abiding citizen have no one else to turn to. Vigilante-ism would be more effective in Tucson than our Police Dept.

Thursday 15 January

By Terry

Neutral

When I first moved to Billings MT I recieved a ticket for not comming to a complete stop at a stop sign. First ticket I have had in 20 years. After that of course I noticed that not one Police officer in Billings came to a complete stop at a stop sign. I thought about vidio them but you don't want to make a big stink in a Small city they will watch every step you make. It is really sad............