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Health & Fitness

Law Enforcement as A Source of Municipal Revenue

I have not had a traffic ticket in well over ten years. I deserved that one. Now, every time I see someone get a ticket I wonder why they were pulled over. Was it to enforce the law, or was it because the agency, whether the CHP, the Sheriff, or the local police, needed more money. Yeah, they do not get it directly, but the more they direct to government coffers, the more they get.

It is not just traffic tickets either. I won't go into fees and permits that are only tangentially related to law, just as an example, how about home alarms (probably business alarms too, but I don't have one). Not too long ago, I drove down to a nearby 7-11. I set the house alarm. I realized I'd forgotten my wallet and returned home after going less than a mile. The alarm was sounding. I turned it off and notified the alarm company that all was OK since it seemed to be. A few days later I received a false alarm bill from the City of Los Angeles. I am absolutely sure there had been no response to the alarm. There was no "door hanger" telling me the police had been there (unlikely anyway, since they do not even respond to murders in the area within a minute or two). No one knocked on the door during the next 18 hours or so (I stayed home since I was concerned about the cause of the alarm). The police did nothing, but I got billed, and the police permit folk never replied to my letters of complaint and inquiry.

Anyone else have their own experience or complaint about law enforcement as a revenue source. 

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