US city of Menifee not allowed to issue speeding tickets
Arkansas issues small-town police ban on parking tickets
Menifee, Arkansas: This small Midwestern town has a problem. In 2020, the 310-strong congregation took in over $120,000 — most of it from speeding fines. Because this is forbidden, the village has to refrain from issuing new parking tickets for a year.
The town of Menifee is roughly the size of a large motorway service area. The small town is located between Highway 64 and Interstate 40 – a large freeway – about an hour and a half from Stuttgart. By that we don’t mean our editorial office, but a rather remote small town in the middle of the USA and in the north-west of the state of Arkansas. In other words, there’s a lot of territory there. Menifee is making headlines because a recent tax audit showed that the tiny community generated around half of its $120,000 revenue in 2020 from speeding fines.
Too much little coal is forbidden
Under Arkansas law, and specifically by order of District Attorney Tom Tatum, it is clear that the municipality, by way of compensation, is now prohibited from handing out speeding tickets to speed offenders for a year. The racers are happy, the mayor Gary Green is annoyed. He had been aware of the legal situation for a long time and ordered last year that a fine should only be imposed if the speed limit was exceeded by more than 10 miles per hour. In fact, in Arkansas, the police officer has the discretion to issue non-fine warnings. However, the balance of offenses issued in 2020 issued by the local police shows that this possibility was not used once.
The police chief speaks of contaminated sites
The story goes on. The police chief responsible, John Randall, defends his precinct and speaks of delinquent offenders from previous years: “They got a deferral of payment by court decision, and then some high fines were not paid until 2020. And that’s why it looks like we had a lot that year Money taken,” said the Chief of Police.
YouTube, THV11
Local KTHV reporter Ian Russel at the Menifee, Arkansas town sign.
However, the balance sheet mentioned also shows that a particularly zealous officer distributed over 700 traffic tickets during the critical period. As a benchmark: the next in the ranking was around 200 cases, the rest of the 20 responsible police officers ranged between 50 and 100 fines. Given these proportions, it’s likely that a little more prudence or verbal warnings could fix the problem.
The reporting local broadcaster KTHV from Little Rock is silent about the current prosecution of speed offenders. Apparently, Americans don’t want to incite potential speed drivers.
Conclusion
A US municipality earns so much money from traffic tickets that fines – some of which are necessary – can no longer be imposed in the following year. Perhaps the place should be renamed to “Manyfee” (many fees).