USA Africa Dialogue Series - How St. Louis Missouri profits from poverty

In 1998 Bel-Ridge police received permission from the DOT to install a switch at the traffic light that allowed an officer to manually convert it to red. The switch was installed so an officer could allow children from a nearby school to safely cross the road.

But the engineer witnessed police switching the light to red when there were no children present at the intersection at all, just as groups of cars were passing through. Another officer would then pull one or more cars over and issue them tickets.

Bel-Ridge police denied the allegation, and insisted that officers only switched the light to red when children needed to cross. But the engineer found that most of the morning tickets were issued between 9 and 10:30am, when school was already in session.

The Post-Dispatch noted that in 1996, two years before the switch was installed, Bel-Ridge derived 29 percent of its annual revenue from traffic fines. In 1999, the first full year after the switch was installed, that figure jumped to 44.8 percent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits-from-poverty/

- Ikhide

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