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Today's Poll!JC municipal court has seen dramatic increase in cases, revenues
Municipal Court on Wednesday nights is very crowded in the Council Chambers at Jefferson City Hall. Many people stand at the back after all the seats are taken, with others waiting in the lobby outside. Photo by Stephen Brooks.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Jefferson City’s municipal court has increased cases and revenues in the past 20 years, but much of the money raised does not go back into the court’s budget.
Since 2004, municipal court has collected nearly $1 million per year in revenue. In the first three months of 2012, more than 2,500 cases have been filed with more than $277,000 in revenues coming in. That’s more revenue in three months than was brought into municipal court in the entirety of 1994.
But the revenue brought in three months roughly equals the municipal court’s annual budget as all court revenues are put back into the city’s general fund.
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Comments
usmc007 11 months ago
Thats because certain ones of Local authorities are Handing tickets out like Candy @ a pre~school...listen to the Police scanner & you can get your accurate statistics on where & who fills the courts up... fair is fair don't give out Verbals warrnings to certain Groups but ticket & arrest otheers semper~fi
JCsleeper 11 months ago
Wonder how much JC brings in from traffic fines?
jeffcitygirl 11 months ago
The fines for non moving violations are astronomically ridiculous, it's obvious it's not about punishing people who make a mistake, it's about making $$! My 17 year old left her truck parked on private property (gas station) not knowing she couldn't, police were called and it was towed. I understand why we had to pay a $120 tow bill, but the ticket from the cops for illegally parking was $136!!! For what? Showing up and making a phone call to a tow company? It's outrageous and more than a speeding ticket!
RetiredOne 11 months ago
Court revenues will be increasing again. The City is starting to prosecute those not using and not paying for the Allied Waste trash services -- surprise, surprise.
JCLifer 11 months ago
The Parking Nazis surely bring in a considerable income to city hall. I have seen a meter maid writes ticket in 25 seconds. With 2 or 3 meter maids on duty, it is easy to imagine that they issue hundreds of thousands of dollars of tickets each month. I saw one poor car with 4 tickets stacked up. There were plenty of empty spaces around. So this has to be only about hasseling people and making money.
joda 11 months ago
A republican pulling into a parking lot...
JCLifer 11 months ago
Similar to a parking fascist.
tigger2118c 11 months ago
Pay your meter and you don't get a ticket. These people are just doing their jobs, but surely a moral compass like yourself understands that.
JCLifer 11 months ago
So it is only about the money!
True 11 months ago
Thats funny, I was at a funeral and didn't get out in time. The ticket made the funeral that much more.....yeah. Watched her write the ticket while walking out of the church. Sorry the funeral was for someone that was loved and had lots of people there.
connor 11 months ago
What I really like is when you see a JCPD car parked in the resident section of streets like down by LU's MLK building while the cops go up to take a class during the day. I guess they are immune to following these parking laws while driving an "official" vehicle. The argument being that they may need to leave in a hurry for an emergency I am sure. Of course I had a JCPD officer in a class with me a few years ago who turned their radio off for class claiming it was their lunch hour.
Let a civy park over there and they are on them so fast with a huge ticket. No wonder out of town people will drive miles out of their way to keep from traveling through Jefferson City.
JCLifer 11 months ago
They go to school on work time?
connor 11 months ago
Since I finished up there about 8 years ago I couldn't weigh in on the current circumstances but back then there were three JCPD officers who were taking classes during the day and a couple at night, that I knew of. What each individual's circumstances were is speculation but I know I had classes with two individuals both day and evening that were two classes back to back which would make a long lunch hour.
Maybe they had a deal worked out to put in an extra hour on the days that a duty shift conflicted with class.
a good gig if you can get it I guess.
hudson 11 months ago
our justice system is more about money then justice ,and if you have alot of money you can buy alot of justice.
TylerWoods 11 months ago
What both of these stories fail to mention is that a lot of "new" case load is the city taking some of the county load so they can focus on other crime. Everyone wants to complain about having to pay a fine for something they didn't know or they didn't think was fair... If you are going to live here, know the law, if you break the law pay a fine like everyone else. Everyone wants to see the PD focus more on serious crime, if you would do your homework you would see that many serious offenders are arrested and found during a traffic stop... Our officers and court system are doing a great job!
MO4LIFE 11 months ago
Prison Industrial Complex = Legalized Slavery!
spelchek 11 months ago
Yeah!!! Robbing people at gun point and forever scarring them for life resulting in prison time = Legalized Slavery! Which one of your loved ones is incarcerated that has got you all bitter?
TickledPink 11 months ago
Obviously certain crimes deserve prison time, but having a for profit prison system has resulted in mass incarceration for infractions that deserve fines at best. The US has the highest per capita prison population of any industrialized nation. How does this help our society?
spelchek 11 months ago
Answer to your last question: By keeping murderers, pedophiles and rapists away from my family. I've known people with 5 or 6 DWI's whom never did any time in prison. I've always assumed because they didn't hurt anyone in the process. Point being, judges aren't that quick to throw people behind bars. Lastly, do you think there's any correlation between our prison population and this countries direction towards becoming secular? It appears the more we remove religion from our experiment and leave things up to the religion of government, thinks continually digress.
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